The net earnings of Alphabet fell fourteen percent, to $1.6 billion thanks in part to inflation and conflicts, as well as the pullback of advertisers slowing growth at the beginning of the past two years.

The growth in revenue of Google over the quarter ended in a slowdown to the lowest rate in the past two years, as advertisers trimmed their spending amid growing concerns of a recession in the economy.

Net income of the business decreased 14 percent from year-to-year to $16 billion in the most recent quarter, however it is the flow of internet ads dollars that fuel the company’s growth has slowed due to conflict, inflation and other issues afflict the economy overall.

“Google’s performance this quarter shows it’s not immune to issues faced by the digital advertising sector across the board,” said analyst Evelyn Mitchell.

The relapse reported in the Tuesday report by Google’s parent company company, Alphabet is the latest indication that the forces that propel large tech companies through the outbreak have changed.

Alphabet’s revenues in the period April-June reached $69.7 billion, which was a 13 percent increase over the same time last year.

That’s a huge increase for the majority of companies that aren’t in technology. It was however Alphabet’s lowest percentage of growth since quarter of April-June of 2020 in which the company experienced the first and thus far the only year-over-year revenue decrease in its history.

The lower spending was evident especially at YouTube which grew by 5 percent over the previous year’s second quarter. It was the lowest year-over-year growth in the quarter since Alphabet began to release its financials for the video website in the latter part of 2019.

Uncertainty regarding “pullbacks’

The rally picked up steam following Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai and other top executives assured analysts on a conference call late on Tuesday that the company would be more careful regarding its spending decisions in the coming months.

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“Personally I find instances like this one to be enlightening,” Pichai explained during the conference. “It provides us with the opportunity to examine every aspect of our work through an objective lens.”

The results from the second quarter reflect more cautiousness among digital advertisers. They remain cautious in the midst of Federal Reserve contemplates more aggressive actions — which could mean increased interest rates to reduce the most inflation rate in over 40 years, an effort which could push the economy into recession. The next rate hike is scheduled for Wednesday.

“We employ the term ‘uncertainty to describe what we are seeing because it is the most appropriate way to describe the situation we’re experiencing,” chief financial officer Ruth Porat said during a conference call with analysts on Tuesday night.

She also admitted that Google was impacted by “pullbacks” with an unspecified quantity of marketers.

Google has already begun preparing for a possible recession, recently announcing plans to cut back on hiring. It after that, it went further by imposing a two-week ban on the extension of job offers to applicants.

Alphabet which has over 174,000 employees around the world has been recruiting during the epidemic, but the company recently revealed a reduction in hiring through the rest of this year.