Carole Horst As industry mavens alight on the Zurich Film Festival, escalating inflation costs and rising interest rates are hijacking dreams of a post-pandemic recovery and rebirth.
Together, these financing challenges are sitting on top of unstable budgets still coping with COVID-induced costs that continue to send production budgets 10% north on average.
Observers need to go back to 1981 to find inflation rates higher than the current 9% to 10% figure across Western nations, while prime bank lending rates are now sitting at 5%-6%, matching 2008-09 financial crisis levels.
Take the rising cost of borrowing first, following a decade of extremely cheap money, and the pressure on producers is now acute: “You’ve got to consider that most indie financiers are always looking to lower budgets anyway.
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