The self-employed workers organization UPTA has alerted this Thursday that the widespread increase in prices recorded in July, combined with the rise in fuel and electricity costs, will reduce the margins "of thousands of small businesses" and will also limit their capacity for growth, investment, and job creation.
"Inflation is once again becoming a serious threat to the self-employed and small businesses," UPTA has denounced after the data of the CPI for July was made known, which reflects an annual inflation of 3.6%, four tenths above that of June and one tenth more than expected.
In a note, UPTA has pointed out that, in addition to the rise in fuel and electricity bills, the self-employed are forced to absorb increases in the prices of supplies, raw materials, transportation, services, and other basic expenses to keep their businesses open.
For Eduardo Abad, president of UPTA Spain, this scenario once again highlights the fragility of small businesses in the face of rising costs. "Self-employed workers cannot continue to be the buffer for every international crisis. When fuel prices rise, thousands of self-employed workers see their costs skyrocket overnight without any real capacity to pass it on to their prices," he explained.
According to the organization, the widespread increase in prices is undermining the competitiveness of self-employed workers and small businesses. UPTA finds it particularly alarming that this dynamic coincides with the gradual withdrawal of some of the extraordinary measures approved this year to address the economic consequences of the war in Iran.
"The Government implemented measures to contain the impact of the energy crisis, but later began a gradual reduction of the discounts applied to fuels. It is not the time to forget about the self-employed. The evolution of inflation shows that costs continue to be one of the main problems for thousands of self-employed workers," the organization has emphasized.
The very evolution of diesel, whose price skyrocketed by 15.7% year-on-year in July, has forced the activation of the safeguard mechanism provided by the Government and the increase again of its tax rebate to 20 cents per liter starting in September.
In this context, UPTA demands that administrations adopt new measures to alleviate the cost burden on self-employed workers and small businesses, mitigate the impact of the rise in energy and fuel prices, and protect the activities most vulnerable to the price escalation.