Cost of living has risen by 2.2%

zig

Things arent really working out as planned are they. Arent we not supposed to be trying shrink our economy to an extent, reducing wages, reducing prices , becoming more competitive etc etc.
I understand that we can expect to see lower living standards, but i hope this information is being taken into account as future budgets are planned out.
What Im most curious about is food. Its definitely fallen in some areas, but it seems to be fairly stagnated in others. Keep going to Aldi I guess and the rest will eventually match prices.


http://www.herald.ie/breaking-news/national-news/cost-of-living-goes-up-by-22-2574780.html

The cost of living is increasing at its fastest rate in more than two years, official data has revealed.
Rising fuel prices linked to the Libyan uprising, severe hikes in health insurance premiums and an end to sales last month all combined to hit households in the pocket.
The annual rate of inflation is at 2.2% after seven months of steady rises - a level not seen since November 2008.
Congress economic adviser Paul Sweeney said increasing prices were putting impossible pressure on ordinary working people.
"And we can now expect further increases in interest rates and in commodity prices along with the proposed rise in VAT," Mr Sweeney said.
"The incoming Government needs to bear this increased cost of living in mind when framing policy."
Congress also claimed the overall cost of living is 26% more expensive than the EU average.
The Central Statistics Office inflation report found household bills such as power, heat, fuel and mortgage repayments followed by personal goods were hardest hit in the last year.
Some of the biggest price hikes were in the insurance market where health premiums soared by 14.4% last month and air travel, which jumped by 21%.
Despite the overall increase, the survey found the cost of clothing, footwear, education, furnishings and household equipment and maintenance all fell in the course of the last 12 months.

seamus

Fuel and insurance are the two big killers here. Health insurance has skyrocketed, but car and & home insurance have also increased significantly.

Fuel is a bit of a dual-edged sword. The government are taking the lion's share in taxes, but reducing these will reduce tax take while only potentially giving short-term relief (the cost could keep on rising).

I would have to agree that the cost of pretty much everything else seems to be on a downward trend, so if you manage your fuel/energy spend wisely and shop around for insurance, you can still do better despite overall increased cost of living.

whiteonion

Most economists say that some inflation is good, what that actually means is that they think it's good that things get more expensive so your standard of living drops.

ei.sdraob

zig wrote: »

Things arent really working out as planned are they.

Month on month right thru this recession for last few years any sector controlled by the government such as Education, Health, Energy have continued to inflate

are you surprised?

GSF

whiteonion wrote: »

Most economists say that some inflation is good, what that actually means is that they think it's good that things get more expensive so your standard of living drops.

It would be if salaries rose to match price inflation because then our debts would decrease in real terms. But thats not happening.

ardmacha

Month on month right thru this recession for last few years any sector controlled by the government such as Education, Health, Energy have continued to inflate

are you surprised?

I am not surprised, the government has a huge deficit. Many people are calling on them to take action to reduce this deficit, obviously not you since you seem to be surprised that they do so. But then some people don't seem to realise that there is a problem.

ei.sdraob

ardmacha wrote: »

I am not surprised, the government has a huge deficit. Many people are calling on them to take action to reduce this deficit, obviously not you since you seem to be surprised that they do so. But then some people don't seem to realise that there is a problem.

I dont see anyone calling on government to get involved in the energy sector and artificially keep prices high in order to give an illusion of competition.

As for education and healthcare well these are just basketcases all together

ardmacha

As for education and healthcare well these are just basketcases all together

Irish education is far from a basket case and is one of the cheapest systems in Europe. Did it not say in the paper this week that Ireland, with less than 1% of Europe's population, has not one but two universities in the top 50. This with a spending per student below civilised places.

Taxi Drivers

ei.sdraob wrote: »

Month on month right thru this recession for last few years any sector controlled by the government such as Education, Health, Energy have continued to inflate

are you surprised?

Month on month the CPI measures the changes in consumer prices. The sectors you mention may be "controlled by the government" but that does not mean the government sets the prices in these sectors. The impact of the public sector may have an effect on prices but in general the provision of these services by the public sector does not feed into the CPI as there are no prices to measure. I'd recommend having a detailed look at something like this.

ei.sdraob

Taxi Drivers wrote: »

Month on month the CPI measures the changes in consumer prices. The sectors you mention may be "controlled by the government" but that does not mean the government sets the prices in these sectors. The impact of the public sector may have an effect on prices but in general the provision of these services by the public sector does not feed into the CPI as there are no prices to measure. I'd recommend having a detailed look at something like this.

You are telling us the government has no hand in having a dysfunctional energy market where the likes of ESB are prevented from lowering prices in order to "encourage competition"

Next you be telling us that month and month rises in government controlled sectors as illustrated by CSO are a lie

nothing to see move along right right :rolleyes:

mikemac

Gonna print off this thread and ask the boss for a pay rise

Taxi Drivers

ei.sdraob wrote: »

You are telling us the government has no hand in having a dysfunctional energy market where the likes of ESB are prevented from lowering prices in order to "encourage competition"

Next you be telling us that month and month rises in government controlled sectors as illustrated by CSO are a lie

nothing to see move along right right :rolleyes:

You must have missed this so. Electricity is up 3.2% on the year but it should be noted that the CSO estimate that electricity is now 7.5% cheaper than it was in April 2009.

Here is the health sub-category in the CPI



Can you please indicate how much of this is actually "state-controlled" and how it represents our public health sector?

ednwireland

Irish incomes are estimated to have fallen to 8 per cent below the EU average at the end of 2010, wiping out the gains of the last 12 years.

Incomes per head have returned to levels last seen in 1997, according to figures contained in a new report.

Only Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece are now recording lower income levels than Ireland, the figures show.

The detail is contained in the report of the independent review panel of the Department of Finance published last week.

from http://www.sbpost.ie/themarket/irish-incomes-now-among-eu-lowest-54896.html

i sure a FF (former ) minister was spouting the CR*p that we are still one of the richest countries in europe and therfore could afford more taxes
but then they lived in a bubble (i'm actually not earning much more than i was 15 years ago )

BluePlanet

ei.sdraob wrote: »

I dont see anyone calling on government to get involved in the energy sector and artificially keep prices high in order to give an illusion of competition.

Oh great, a libertarian that is going to tell us that this little island and it's small population is ripe for loads of privately owned energy companies to setup shop, and they'll all compete with each other and the end user will get cheap esb, and no it won't be another Eircom. :rolleyes:

ei.sdraob

BluePlanet wrote: »

Oh great, a libertarian that is going to tell us that this little island and it's small population is ripe for loads of privately owned energy companies to setup shop, and they'll all compete with each other and the end user will get cheap esb, and no it won't be another Eircom. :rolleyes:

Malta (a small island with smallest population in EU) has cheaper electricity

go figure :rolleyes:

BluePlanet

ei.sdraob wrote: »

Malta (a small island with smallest population in EU) has cheaper electricity

go figure :rolleyes:

Malta has no domestic production of electricity, they import 100% of their oil, which is the only type of energy used for electricity generation.

The EU Fact sheet says the "high cost of energy in Malta is expected to stimulate debate on alternative energy sources"

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/energy_policy/doc/factsheets/mix/mix_mt_en.pdf

Not sure if they have any private electicity companies. But it's not looking likely.

HivemindXX

ei.sdraob wrote: »

Malta (a small island with smallest population in EU) has cheaper electricity

go figure :rolleyes:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Energy_price_statistics#External_links

Malta is moving from massively subsidizing electricity costs to charging a market rate. According to this Eurostat report in 2008 they were 10c per unit. In 2009 they were 17c per unit. They didn't report any data for 2010. It appears they have the fastest growing electricity prices in Europe. Prices in Ireland are currently 18c per unit a decrease of 2c per unit since last year. Interestingly back to where they were before the market was 'opened'.

It appears that Malta is still cheaper than Ireland but even ignoring the fact that we are comparing the country with the fastest growing prices with the country with the third fastest decreasing prices I still wouldn't be happy.

It seems cheap prices come at a cost, which we should know since when we didn't invest in infrastructure and spare capacity we had cheap prices too.


http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/2010-review-blackout

This paper paints a dim picture of the standard of electricity supply in Malta.

Malta’s only electricity provider proved unable to live up to its primary function on several occasions throughout the year: resulting in widespread power outages, sometimes lasting several hours.

Economist and Labour MEP Edward Scicluna estimated that the Good Friday power cut alone cost at least €20 million for the Maltese economy.

Just last Wednesday the same pattern repeated itself for the umpteenth time: a technical fault at the Marsa Power station led to the tripping of the Combined Cycle at Delimara, interrupting power supply to around 50% of Malta and Gozo.

BluePlanet

Looks like Malta got their own Eircom in 1977.
The single and only electricity provider, setup by an act of Parliment in 1977: Enemalta
http://www.enemalta.com.mt

ardmacha

Irish incomes are estimated to have fallen to 8 per cent below the EU average at the end of 2010, wiping out the gains of the last 12 years.

Incomes per head have returned to levels last seen in 1997, according to figures contained in a new report.

Only Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece are now recording lower income levels than Ireland, the figures show.

The detail is contained in the report of the independent review panel of the Department of Finance published last week.

This quote is indicative of everything that is wrong about this debate. It relates not to the EU but the EU 15.I very much doubt if income levels have fallen to 1997 levels, there were real gain in the 1995-1999 period when growth was 7.5% per annum and these have not been lost. Ireland may have last been 8% below the EU 15 average then, but that is not the same thing at all. While people post nonsense based on quotes from newspapers that are largely nonsense and while newspapers continue to publish nonsense then there is confusion, as if the reality wasn't bad enough.

In fact a posting on Irisheconomy suggests that it is all bollix
Irish GNI per head was €29,700 in 2009, according to eurostat. The EU 15 average was €27,400. Incidently, the figure for the UK was €25,700