June 2012: Influences on prices over the last 12 months
Looking back over the LAST 12 months, how do you think the following five common influences have affected the prices of your products and/or services?
| Strong downward influence | Moderate downward influence | Little/no influence | Moderate upward influence | Strong upward influence | Diffusion Index† | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor costs | 0% | 2% | 52% | 41% | 4% | 24 |
| Non-labor costs | 0% | 6% | 30% | 53% | 11% | 34 |
| Productivity | 1% | 14% | 67% | 18% | 1% | 2 |
| Margin adjustments | 3% | 19% | 55% | 21% | 2% | 1 |
| Sales levels | 4% | 20% | 45% | 27% | 4% | 4 |
| † The diffusion index is calculated such that each response of strong downward influence is assigned a value of –100, moderate downward influence is assigned a value of –50, little/no influence 0, moderate upward influence 50, and strong upward influence 100. Therefore, a positive index value indicates that overall prices are being influenced upwards, on average, and a negative index value indicates that prices are being influenced downwards, on average. | ||||||