The commodities boom has increased the prices of wood and metals.

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Mr. Ohlsson said declining costs for raw materials such as cotton and wood likely would allow the company to cut prices another 1% this fiscal year.

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But obsolete wood processing machinery and the continued fall of primary commodity prices including gold and cocoa, have taken its toll.

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Indeed, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that hospital consolidation in the 1990s drove up inpatient prices 5%.

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