Apple’s latest quarterly figures were quite convincing, with revenue rising by 11% to $123.9 billion. Tim Cook CEO of Apple spoke after the figures of supply chains that are improving, but with concern, he sees above all inflationary pressure emerging.
Cook said in an interview with CNBC, “We try to price our products for the value that we deliver and we are seeing inflationary pressure. I think everybody’s seeing inflationary pressure. There’s no two ways about that.”
He thus joins other CEOs who see exactly the same thing.
Goldman Sachs CEO Solomon agrees, saying recently, “Based on my experience, it makes sense that coming out of the recent period of easy monetary policy, inflation may be above-trend for some time,” adding, “In the near-term, inflationary pressures may continue to intensify before they start to decrease.”
According to a survey, inflation is the second-highest business concern among CEOs right now. COVID continues to be in the first place. The majority of CEOs surveyed see inflation as an issue until the end of 2022 and one-third even until the end of 2023.
Indeed, global inflation figures have risen sharply in a large number of countries. For example, the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) rose 7% YoY in December. However, while most only look at consumer prices, it is mainly producer prices that are seeing a big increase. In the U.S., the Producer Price Index (PPI) for the month of December rose by 9.7% YoY and in Germany by 24.2% YoY.
Many companies are also now forced to raise entry-level salaries. If this spreads across the economy, further inflationary pressure is likely to emerge.