Businesses across the U.S. are beginning to pass tariff costs to consumers, Fed's 'beige book' finds

Inflation pressures were rising across the U.S. as 2025 ended, according to the Federal Reserve's periodic view of the economy known as the "beige book."

"Cost pressures due to tariffs were a consistent theme across all districts" the report said Wednesday.

Several businesses that initially absorbed tariff-related costs were beginning to pass them on to customers as pretariff inventories became depleted or as price pressures grew more acute, the report noted.

https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20260114231/businesses-across-the-us-are-beginning-to-pass-tariff-costs-to-consumers-feds-beige-book-finds

1 hour ago, Alan Zweibel said:

Businesses across the U.S. are beginning to pass tariff costs to consumers, Fed's 'beige book' finds

Inflation pressures were rising across the U.S. as 2025 ended, according to the Federal Reserve's periodic view of the economy known as the "beige book."

"Cost pressures due to tariffs were a consistent theme across all districts" the report said Wednesday.

Several businesses that initially absorbed tariff-related costs were beginning to pass them on to customers as pretariff inventories became depleted or as price pressures grew more acute, the report noted.

https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20260114231/businesses-across-the-us-are-beginning-to-pass-tariff-costs-to-consumers-feds-beige-book-finds

And this was before Trump threatened to impose a further 25% surcharge on countries that continued to trade with Iran. Think how exciting it must be for businesses never to be sure of how much they're going to have to pay in tariffs and never able to project how much you'll have to charge their buyers.