Despite President Donald Trump’s stern entreaty last month to Walmart to “eat the tariffs,” new Federal Reserve data reveal that many U.S. businesses are following the example set by the world’s largest retailer by quietly increasing prices and passing them onto consumers.
In its monthly Liberty Street Economics report on June 4, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York surveyed businesses in the New York–Northern New Jersey region, asking them about the tariffs they encountered, recent changes in the cost of imported goods, and whether they were passing on cost increases induced by tariffs to their customers.
Results from the Fed’s 2nd District survey indicate that most East Coast businesses passed on at least some of the higher tariffs to their customers, with nearly a third of manufacturers and about 45 percent of service firms fully passing along all tariff-induced cost increases by raising their prices….