Mint Business Insights: July 2026 edition

Key insights from our latest report:

1. Businesses are facing strong cost pressures but their ability to raise selling prices is being constrained by weakness in customer demand across most sectors. That means margins are still under pressure and leaves open a risk of a pricing/inflation catch-up once growth is stronger through 2027.

2. Plans for investing in plant and equipment have firmed recently but respondents have expressed concerns about the highly uncertain environment they are operating in. Many are concerned about events offshore while a number also consider the election outcome as a key determinant of whether they will expand or not.

3. Despite high uncertainty almost as large a net proportion of businesses now expect improved revenue in the coming year as was the case before the US-Iran war started on February 28. That probably helps explain good strength in plans for advertising and to a lesser degree recruitment.