Business costs we track

Energy, fuel, freight, tariffs, interest rates, wages and materials: what moves each one, and what the engine is seeing now.

Seven groups of business costs, each with its own page: the terms the engine watches, the benchmarks its calls are graded against, its latest analyses and its record.

• Energy

  The electricity and gas a business buys to run its premises, machinery, heating and refrigeration.

• Fuel

  The diesel, petrol and other fuels a business buys for vehicles, generators and heating, and the crude oil prices they are refined from. 5 indexed analyses.

• Freight & shipping

  The cost of moving goods: container and sea freight, road haulage, couriers and the surcharges carriers add.

• Tariffs & imports

  Duties and taxes on goods crossing a border, the trade rules behind them, and the exchange rate a business pays when it buys in another currency.

• Interest rates

  What a business pays to borrow: overdrafts, loans, asset finance and the central-bank rates they are priced from. 1 indexed analysis.

• Wages

  Pay and the costs that come with it: minimum and living wage rates, employer taxes on pay, and market pay growth.

• Commodities

  The raw materials and ingredients a business buys: metals, plastics, packaging, timber, textiles, chips, and food commodities such as grain, sugar, dairy and coffee.

Not sure which costs matter to you? The free cost exposure check shows what is moving for your country and inputs, or browse by industry.