Soaring inflation ravages industry

THE corporate sector faces even tougher times ahead as the cost of doing business keeps soaring — driven by rising inflation and interest rates, as well as the continued weakening of the local currency against the American dollar.
This comes as hard-pressed companies — which were this week hit by fresh fuel price and interest rate hikes — also have to contend with unrelenting power cuts and an acute shortage of foreign currency, among a myriad other challenges. Economic experts and business leaders who spoke to The Financial Gazette this week said the country’s “real” rate of inflation was higher than the official figures that the government was bandying about.