Greedflation: corporate profiteering ‘significantly’ boosted global prices, study shows

According to Which?, the cost of basic food items including milk, cheese, butter and baked goods has risen by more than 30% since 2021. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

Profiteering has played a significant role in boosting inflation during 2022, according to a report that calls for a global corporation tax to curb excess profits.

Analysis of the financial accounts of many of the UK’s biggest businesses found that profits far outpaced increases in costs, helping to push up inflation last year to levels not seen since the early 1980s.