P&G predicts rise in costs

NEW YORK Buyers of Proctor & Gamble products could soon pay higher prices.

Dow Chemical, one of P&G’s main suppliers of the materials it uses to make its products, has had to increase costs by up to 20 percent to defray rising prices of energy and raw materials. P&G does not know how much that will affect prices of its own products, whose prices have already increased this year by between 6 and 10 percent.

The company reported that first-quarter spending on raw materials had increased by 42 percent, and that the increase in prices for its materials was the largest in its 111-year history.

Dow’s stock price was down by 0.03 percent at 2:57 p.m. Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.