Curious to know how inflation is impacting your business here in Taiwan! We’re experiencing pressure on our rents and cost of employees. I checked back over the past ten years and it’s been tick-tick-tick relentless, some years by only a small amount. It’s been discretely hidden by increasing revenue.
This year it’s been the reverse. My business recently raised prices by 7% and it is already looks like it’s not enough to stave off yet another price rise next year of a similar amount. Wondering what other small businesses here are experiencing and how you’re coping. Thanks.
The only inflation I’ve experienced in Taiwan was an increase of my watermelon juice from $30 to $35. I haven’t seen restaurant prices go up in the last two years that I’ve lived here, and my rent hasn’t gone up either. Those are my two largest expenses.
Given that I only make my watermelon juice purchase 4 times a month, I don’t think an extra spending of $20 per month necessitates me increasing my business prices.
salary expectations of new staff
travel costs
printing costs
shipping costs
all went up.
we raise prices every year,but all the clients whine they cant afford it。
Because the macroeconomic policy is inflation. This isn’t an accident, it’s worldwide monetary policy.
Deflation is worse than inflation it seems because it means businesses can’t pay their staff, banks recall loans immediately and the entire economy is destroyed.
Modern economy really works against saving because if you save, inflation eats it up. So debt becomes a better strategy because inflation makes debts smaller.
A dollar was a lot of money in 1900, it’s worthless today.
You can thank the great depression for this.
What’s criminal is that wages do not keep pace with inflation all over the world. We are going back to feudalism or even late stage capitalism (which is worse than feudalism)
I’m seeing governments become more authoritarian in general. With technology it’s harder and harder to get away with stuff. Your only safety is you’re a nobody and so nobody cares about you.
In the old days you didn’t need visas to go anywhere.
Most of our income is in Euro, Yen or USA$ so for the most part except Yen exchange rates have covered Taiwan company expeneses increases in Euro (up 15%) and USA$. Shipping from Taiwan is quite higher as well labour costs up for skilled people so for sure inflation is there. Locally we get consulting fees which we charge 10%+ more. People not complain about the increase but about the higher prices in general, we choose not compete on price but better service so inflation has less impact on us. It seems impact lower income people more.
Because there’s an inflation rate of 3% that is deemed as healthy. Interest rates are raised or lowered in order to keep it at this rate. If the inflation is too high, interest rates are raised in order to slow down the economy and reduce inflation.
They teach this in high school you know.
As for the real reason, who knows? I just know that in this day and age, inflation is part and parcel of the modern economy. 3% inflation is good, 30% is not.
Except I saw on the news Argentina seems to have runaway inflation. This isn’t the first time they had problems with this.
The contradiction is that a certain amount of inflation is deemed acceptable. If inflation is too low interest rate is lowered to make it go up, if too high they raise interest rate to lower it.
It seems according to this the federal reserve bank wants inflation to be higher to make up for lower inflation in the years past.
The problem is, interest rates do not do anything about corporate greed.
If Proctor and Gamble and Unilever both decide to raise prices across the board by 50%, nothing the Fed can do will change that. Since both company essentially control probably 90% of the consumer goods market, they can essentially control the economy.
its not all corporate greed.
my employees (and me as well) expect salary increases and year end bonuses.
for the company to affors those, it needs to be profitable : make more money than we spend…
salaries are only one part of the cost base. we also need to pay for materials, travel, rent, utilities, taxes… they all go up becaise other businesses also need to make money…
Inflation has opened doors for me here in Japan that would otherwise have remained closed. My two competitors are based in Europe and their prices have risen so high due to inflation and opportunism that their distributors are willing to set aside long term business relationships and deal with me instead. Because I’m based in Taiwan and have a very flat, low-cost organization I can easily undercut my European competitors and still make money.
On a personal level inflation here in Japan has reached breathtaking levels. Not sure how consumers here will manage long term.