Ageras launches inflation tracker to record impact on European SMEs

By Gloria Methri

Danish FinTech Ageras Group has launched its proprietary Inflation Tracker to reveal how the rise in the Consumer Price Index outpaced the rise in prices billed by small businesses across Western Europe in the recent quarter.

The tracker will compare how much freelancers, microbusinesses, and SMEs raised the prices for goods between July and September versus the rise in each country’s official Consumer Price Index. Ageras data will then provide insight into how the smallest business owners across some of Europe’s largest economies are faring relative to overall inflation rates.

“We launched our index because we wanted to objectively study and highlight the unique challenges facing the economy’s unsung heroes — sole proprietors and other small businesses,” said Ageras Co-founder Martin Hegelund. “Our data in this inaugural report show that inflation left small business owners worse off in every country we studied. We hope these data are a wake-up call for policymakers to focus more on inflation’s outsized impact on small businesses.”

Ageras’ index focused on seven European economies – Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

In Europe’s largest economies, the CPI rose between 2 to 3% faster than price hikes by small businesses. In France and Germany, there was a 2.6% gap between official CPI data and SMEs. In the UK, inflation’s impact was slightly weaker, with prices rising 2.2% faster than by SMEs.

However, inflation’s largest impact was across some smaller countries in the most recent quarter. Among the seven countries measured by the Ageras index, inflation hit SMEs in Austria hardest. The country’s CPI rose 5.3% faster than small businesses in the last quarter.

The gap was second highest in Belgium at 4.4%, followed by Denmark at 4.2%. On the other hand, small business owners were best off in Switzerland, where the CPI rose 0.8% faster.