Manufacturers enjoyed a 13.4 per cent rate of return in the three months to September 2017

Profitability among British businesses is holding up despite higher inflation since the Brexit vote, according to official figures.

The net rate of return, the Office for National Statistics’ preferred measure of corporate profitability, for Britain’s non-financial businesses was largely unchanged in the three months to September 2017, compared with the previous quarter.

The reading edged lower, from 12.7 per cent to 12.6 per cent, but remained at roughly the same level it was before the referendum in June 2016 and no worse than the average of the three years before the vote.

Companies’ import costs soared after the near 20 per cent collapse in the pound against the dollar after the vote, forcing them to pass some of the burden on to customers in higher