The weights used in England in compiling the British index figure were compiled from budgets collected as long ago as 1904. These show a pre-war standard of living and the final index figure shows the percentage increase in expenditure necessary to maintain that precise standard of living absolutely unchanged at the present day.
We were not in possession of any Irish figures by which the pre-war standard of living could be accurately measured, and it was accordingly necessary for us to obtain budgets showing the present standard of living. Our final index figure therefore shows the percentage increase in expenditure which would have been necessary to maintain the present standard of living absolutely unchanged from July, 1914, to the present day.
It has been seen that according to the figures compiled by us, 57.1s. out of every 100s. is spent on food in Irish wage-earning class households; 17.5s. on clothing, and so on, and it is of interest to compare these "weights" with the corresponding figures calculated by the English Ministry of Labour from the "United Kingdom" Budgets of 1904, which relate to the pre-war "United Kingdom" Standard of Living and which are still in use in England.
The following table shows the proportion of each 100s. spent by Wage-Earning Class Households which is spent on (1) Food, (2) Clothing, (3) Rent, (4) Fuel and Light, and (5) Sundries:—
| Class of Commodity. | In Ireland. | In "United Kingdom." | ||
| In June, 1922, as calculated from the Committee's Budgets. | In July, 1914, as calculated from the previous column by price changes. | In July, 1914, as calculated from 1904 Budgets. | In July, 1922, as calculated from 1904 Budgets by price changes. | |
| A. | B. | C. | D. | |
| (1) Food | 57.1 | 56.2 | 60 | 58.6 |
| (2) Clothing | 17.5 | 17.0 | 12 | 15.6 |
| (3) Rent | 5.4 | 7.9 | 16 | 13.3 |
| (4) Fuel and Light | 7.0 | 6.6 | 8 | 8.3 |
| (5) Sundries | 13.0 | 12.3 | 4 | 4.2 |
| 100.0 | 100.0 | 100 | 100.0 | |
It should be explained that the method of arriving at Columns B and D is as follows:—
The amounts of the various commodities consumed, as shown in the table compiled from the budgets, are left unchanged, but the prices are altered according to the prices ruling at the date under consideration, i.e., Column B shows the proportion of expenditure in 1914 on the various classes of commodities had the 1914 standard been precisely the same as the present day standard.
(C) Compilation of the Final Figure.
We were now in possession of the retail prices of the individual commodities at the different dates, and of the weights obtained from the summarisation of the household budgets, and these prices and weights for the main groups of articles are set out in the subjoined table:—