SORCE Insights: An Update on Firms’ Costs and Prices

The Cleveland Fed's Survey of Regional Conditions and Expectations (SORCE) fielded from August 6 through August 13, 2026, included a set of special questions focused on firms' costs and prices. This District Data Brief discusses the top-line results from these questions. This question set was last fielded during January 2026, and the results were detailed in SORCE Insights: The Relationship between Costs and Prices.

Actual and Expected Changes in Costs and Prices

In the August 2026 survey, firms reported that their costs and prices each rose by a median of 5 percent over the previous 12 months. Firms expected their costs to rise by 4 percent and their selling prices by 3 percent over the next 12 months.^{1, 2}

Compared with firms surveyed in January, those surveyed in August seem to have passed on a greater share of their cost increases over the past 12 months. At the median, firms surveyed in August reported that their past-12-month price increases equaled 100 percent of their past-12-month cost increases, up from roughly 80 percent in the January survey.³