Inflation adjusted average industrial wage

The Central Bank
1

Based on the figures provided:
viewtopic.php?p=266067#p266067
Caveat:

1975 €19,582.20 1976 €18,772.40 1977 €18,432.77 1978 €18,873.01 1979 €20,600.51 1980 €21,669.80 1981 €21,267.77 1982 €20,261.49 1983 €19,568.14 1984 €19,811.00 1985 €19,791.52 1986 €18,777.53 1987 €18,072.70 1988 €23,890.08 1989 €29,520.35 1990 €28,384.95 1991 €27,451.60 1992 €27,969.35 1993 €28,137.33 1994 €28,662.98 1995 €28,562.47 1996 €29,005.45 1997 €29,494.31 1998 €31,085.14 1999 €32,078.13 2000 €33,690.19 2001 €34,542.64 2002 €35,232.70 2003 €35,534.08 2004 €36,320.48 2005 €37,605.82 2006 €38,976.18
Notes: The figures are for the average industrial wage as best John can make out for the particular year inflated by CPI from the CSO ( cso.ie/statistics/conpriceindex.htm ) to reach an equivalent amount in 2006 euros.
If anyone can supply better figures I will work those.

Also, if anyone can supply mortgage interest rates, tax relief on mortgages, average tax rates etc. I will try and work those up too.

Anyway, what I take from those figures is that, in contrast to our German cousins who have lost purchasing power since 1990 and our US cousins who have lost purchasing power since 1999 (inflation adjusted), we have done rather well in paying ourselves. No wonder we are so rich…

2

Interesting. I suppose it makes sense. It is easy to forget how relatively poor Ireland was up until the 1990’s.

Interest rates for the '70s and '80s can be found here:

books.google.com/books?id=w3hmC1 … #PPA535,M1

I suppose it’s a case of adding a premium to arrive at an approximation of mortgage interest rates.

For the 1990’s, up to 1998, perhaps use the Bundesbank rate plus a premium?

1999 and thereafter:

ecb.int/stats/monetary/rates … ex.en.html

3

Those earnings numbers you are working from arent the av ind wage. Too much.

cso.ie/releasespublications/ … ndearn.pdf

Edit: Edge, the CSO have a data series of average building society mortgage rates going way back.

4

They are, aren’t they?

Bother.

5

Well, it depends on what is being looked for.

I would suggest average industrial wage is likely to be a good bit lower than average earnings. Average industrial wage will not include white collar workers. Who actually works in old style industrial & manufacturing industries anymore anyway?

6

I’ve been looking for something like that for ages. Have you got a link?

7

Funny, I was just looking at this recently.

cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/database/eirestat/Financial%20Indicators%20Historical%20Series/Financial%20Indicators%20Historical%20Series.asp

Anybody know where I might get a historical series of 5 year fixed rates and 5 year euro swap rates?

8

Still, they illustrate a definite trend in our purchasing power - which has basically doubled in thirty years.

It would be interesting to see how our productivity has increased in those 30 years - to answer the question whether we properly earned such an increase in our purchasing power. And, how has our purchasing power been related to other devoloped countries? I get the impression that these questions would lead us closer to finding out where our wealth disappeared to.

9

Answering part of my own question.

swap-rates.com/EURORATES_Historic.html

I thought it might be interesting to chart the 5 year swap rate against the bank’s offered 5 year mortgage rates to see how closely they match and what kind of lag there is. Just the bank 5 year rates to get.