Inflation rising faster here than in rest of the EU

[BarryW]

.....according to todays Consumer Price Index figures. Prices are rising 4% faster here than in the EU as a whole.

And seven of the top ten price hikes were imposed by the government. Look at the increases:

• Natural Gas 35.4%
• Refuse Charges 21.4%
• Electricity 13.5 %
• Hospital Charges 11.8%
• Health Insurance 11.7%
• Primary Education 8.6%
• Secondary Education 8.3%

And all this at a time when the Government is saying, with considerable glee, that they will collect €1,100 more from each hosehold this year than they promised at Budget time.
Consumers are being strangled, and this year will have been the worst year for Irish Exports since 1974

God be with the days of the Rainbow - when we had a booming export market and the lowest inflation rate in Europe...

[smiffy]

And all this at a time when the Government is saying, with considerable glee, that they will collect €1,100 more from each hosehold this year than they promised at Budget time.

Ladies and gentlemen ... I give you the zenith of mongoloid reasoning.

[nuj]

Idiotic, baseless, infantile, if you wish - but not mongoloid, please.

[Conor]

.....according to todays Consumer Price Index figures. Prices are rising 4% faster here than in the EU as a whole.

And seven of the top ten price hikes were imposed by the government. Look at the increases:

• Natural Gas 35.4%
• Refuse Charges 21.4%
• Electricity 13.5 %
• Hospital Charges 11.8%
• Health Insurance 11.7%
• Primary Education 8.6%
• Secondary Education 8.3%

And all this at a time when the Government is saying, with considerable glee, that they will collect €1,100 more from each hosehold this year than they promised at Budget time.
Consumers are being strangled, and this year will have been the worst year for Irish Exports since 1974

God be with the days of the Rainbow - when we had a booming export market and the lowest inflation rate in Europe...

Is our rate of inflation increasing? I thought I saw earlier on today it was stable at 3% p.a.

If you want to make a point, compare our rate of inflation to comparable countries. It's not particularly scandalous unless you put it in context.

[SPN]

Inflation has been rising faster here for years, except for the fact that house price inflation has, for some curious reason, been ignored from the stats for the last I dunno how long.

For example: I bought a 4 bedroom detached dormer bungalow with two en-suite bedrooms in Naas in 1993. When I say Naas, I mean within 7 minutes walk of Hayden's.

I paid under £60K for the house.

Anybody care to guess what that house might be worth today?

.....according to todays Consumer Price Index figures. Prices are rising 4% faster here than in the EU as a whole.

And seven of the top ten price hikes were imposed by the government. Look at the increases:

• Natural Gas 35.4%
• Refuse Charges 21.4%
• Electricity 13.5 %
• Hospital Charges 11.8%
• Health Insurance 11.7%
• Primary Education 8.6%
• Secondary Education 8.3%

And all this at a time when the Government is saying, with considerable glee, that they will collect €1,100 more from each hosehold this year than they promised at Budget time.
Consumers are being strangled, and this year will have been the worst year for Irish Exports since 1974

God be with the days of the Rainbow - when we had a booming export market and the lowest inflation rate in Europe...

Well done Barry!

Yet again you manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

While the point you are trying to make is valid, you highlight the "I am an idiot" tatoo on your forehead when you claim that Gas and Electricity are "imposed by the government".

Gas prices are rising because consumption is outstripping production - on a global basis.

Irish Gas prices are rising (relatively) slowly because Bord Gais hedged their purchases and are not fully exposed to the current spot price rises.

Irish Electricity prices are rising (relatively) slower because the Electricity producers are even more hedged on their fuel purchases - in fact I heard recently that at least one Electricity producer would make more money selling their hedged Gas at spot prices than they will by converting it into Electricity and selling it at CER imposed prices. (If they did that, though, we'd have blackouts sooner rather than later, and Bertie and the Wasters would kick their sorry butts for killing the dream!)

I'd imagine the Health Insurance increase is specific to VHI, and that is a Mary Harney/PD ideological problem, because Mr Tattan's profits are more important than making sure the VHI stays solvent.

I seriously doubt the Primary and Secondary Education figure - mainly because they are both free in this green and verdant Isle.

Refuse Charges are up, but that is because the incinerators have to be made profitable (and made to appear to be a viable option to Joe & Mary Sheeple). Unfortunately, FG are as compromised on the incinerator issue as the Wasters, so you aren't going to score many partisan points with that one, sonny.

Moving on to the exports issue: Construction is as big a part of the economy today as manufacturing is - it has more than 100,000 people employed. (at an average(?) €400/week = €40,000,000 week?)

Construction is currently fuelled by tax reliefs.

Most of these will be gone within 12 months (as things stand today).

Where will we be in 12 months time when the best part of the current construction boom - funded to the tune of €40 million per week by German Pension funds - has died down to a level capable of being funded by SSIA beneficiaries. Oh, that's right, most people went into SSIA in the last 4 weeks, so they won't be coming out until 2007, and the (relatively small number of) people who went into SSIA are (relatively) intelligent, so they are less likely to squander their windfall on ************************e than your average sheep.

The best thing that can happen, from an FG/Labour/Green perspective, is that the Wasters hold out until 2007 before going to The Country. The bigger the cluster************************ before they jump, the less opportunity they will have to blame this one on somebody else (not that they won't try - again!)

[martin TYRONE]

BUT the reall fun will start when the savings scheme bonuses are paid out---remember back in school folks how you were taught first about inflation-----2 MUCH money chasing 2 FEW goods.

[sackville]

Inflation has been rising faster here for years, except for the fact that house price inflation has, for some curious reason, been ignored from the stats for the last I dunno how long.

For example: I bought a 4 bedroom detached dormer bungalow with two en-suite bedrooms in Naas in 1993. When I say Naas, I mean within 7 minutes walk of Hayden's.

I paid under £60K for the house.

Anybody care to guess what that house might be worth today?

.....according to todays Consumer Price Index figures. Prices are rising 4% faster here than in the EU as a whole.

And seven of the top ten price hikes were imposed by the government. Look at the increases:

• Natural Gas 35.4%
• Refuse Charges 21.4%
• Electricity 13.5 %
• Hospital Charges 11.8%
• Health Insurance 11.7%
• Primary Education 8.6%
• Secondary Education 8.3%

And all this at a time when the Government is saying, with considerable glee, that they will collect €1,100 more from each hosehold this year than they promised at Budget time.
Consumers are being strangled, and this year will have been the worst year for Irish Exports since 1974

God be with the days of the Rainbow - when we had a booming export market and the lowest inflation rate in Europe...

Well done Barry!

Yet again you manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

While the point you are trying to make is valid, you highlight the "I am an idiot" tatoo on your forehead when you claim that Gas and Electricity are "imposed by the government".

Gas prices are rising because consumption is outstripping production - on a global basis.

Irish Gas prices are rising (relatively) slowly because Bord Gais hedged their purchases and are not fully exposed to the current spot price rises.

Irish Electricity prices are rising (relatively) slower because the Electricity producers are even more hedged on their fuel purchases - in fact I heard recently that at least one Electricity producer would make more money selling their hedged Gas at spot prices than they will by converting it into Electricity and selling it at CER imposed prices. (If they did that, though, we'd have blackouts sooner rather than later, and Bertie and the Wasters would kick their sorry butts for killing the dream!)

I'd imagine the Health Insurance increase is specific to VHI, and that is a Mary Harney/PD ideological problem, because Mr Tattan's profits are more important than making sure the VHI stays solvent.

I seriously doubt the Primary and Secondary Education figure - mainly because they are both free in this green and verdant Isle.

Refuse Charges are up, but that is because the incinerators have to be made profitable (and made to appear to be a viable option to Joe & Mary Sheeple). Unfortunately, FG are as compromised on the incinerator issue as the Wasters, so you aren't going to score many partisan points with that one, sonny.

Moving on to the exports issue: Construction is as big a part of the economy today as manufacturing is - it has more than 100,000 people employed. (at an average(?) €400/week = €40,000,000 week?)

Construction is currently fuelled by tax reliefs.

Most of these will be gone within 12 months (as things stand today).

Where will we be in 12 months time when the best part of the current construction boom - funded to the tune of €40 million per week by German Pension funds - has died down to a level capable of being funded by SSIA beneficiaries. Oh, that's right, most people went into SSIA in the last 4 weeks, so they won't be coming out until 2007, and the (relatively small number of) people who went into SSIA are (relatively) intelligent, so they are less likely to squander their windfall on ************************e than your average sheep.

The best thing that can happen, from an FG/Labour/Green perspective, is that the Wasters hold out until 2007 before going to The Country. The bigger the cluster************************ before they jump, the less opportunity they will have to blame this one on somebody else (not that they won't try - again!)

Good post ! 8)

House price inflation is also being fueled by an "unexpected amount of 'non-nationals' investing in property over the last 18 months" (I’ve been told that it could be as high as 1/3 of the total).

[SPN]

One important distinction should be made here:

Inflation and CPI (Consumer Price Index) are two completely different things.

Our beloved leaders like to refer to CPI as Inflation, primarily because they get to choose what is in the basket of goods measured.

I would posit that if the actual increase in M3 in this country in recent years were to be published we would find that we do not live in a Low Inflation Economy - not by a long shot!

[FutureTaoiseach]

Not true. http://www.finfacts.com/inflation.htm

Luxembourg, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, and Greece are higher than us inflation-wise. Get facts straight plz.

[SPN]

Not true. http://www.finfacts.com/inflation.htm

Luxembourg, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, and Greece are higher than us inflation-wise. Get facts straight plz.

Except it isn't inflation!

"Harmonised index of consumer prices for 12 countries in the eurozone"