Arabic version: الشركات الصغيرة في كانبرا تواجه ضغوطاً متزايدة في التكاليف

According to ABC News, Canberra small businesses are facing growing pressure as higher operating costs coincide with weaker consumer spending and rising household expenses. The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to raise interest rates for a third time this year as it seeks to manage inflation, while Canberrans are paying the highest fuel prices of all Australian capital cities.

Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Greg Harford said business sentiment in the territory was “as bad as it’s ever been”. He said businesses were being squeezed because the cost of running a business had risen just as household costs had increased, leaving consumers with less disposable income and reducing money coming through the door for many operators.

Mr Harford said retail, hospitality and services businesses were among those most exposed to the changing conditions. He pointed to an expansion of portable long service leave to hospitality and retail, which gives casual workers access to long-service entitlements even if they change employers. Employers must register and pay a set levy on the gross ordinary wages of eligible staff. He also said Canberra commercial property rates had risen by about 8 per cent this year.

His main concern was for heavily leveraged small businesses with narrow margins that depend on customers visiting and spending. The cost-of-living pressures are also affecting pet owners. The RSPCA said that since 2022, unaffordability has been one of the main reasons Canberrans have surrendered companion animals. “Unable to afford care” was the seventh most common surrender reason in FY22, but ranked second in each of the past two years, the local RSPCA said.