SHRINKING SOVEREIGN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3509, 23 June 1920, Page 5

SHRINKING SOVEREIGN.

NOW DOWN TO 11/8L DECREASE IN PURCHASING POWER THIS YEAR. The current number of the Monthly Abstract of Statistics shows .that the purchasing power, or relative worth, of the sovereign, as measured by the retail prices of groceries, dairy produce, and meat was down as low as 11/Si in the March quarter of the present year, taking as the base, or 20/-, the average worth in relation to the same food groups, of the sovereign in the year s 1909-13. The following figures show, for the March quarters, the steady decline in the value of the sovereign since 1914: —March quarter, 1914, 18/10,- 1915, 16/102; 1916, 16/ Hd; 1917, 14/92; 1918, 13/lli; 1919, 13/1:]; March quarter, 1920, 11/84.

It will be noticed that the shrinkage of the sovereign between March, 1919, and March, 1920, is greater than for any similar period, except between March, 1914, and March, 1915. Another table shows that, taking the average worth of the sovereign in July, 1914, as the base (20s), the sovereign was worth 14/01, in the March quarter of 1919; and in the March quarter of 1320 it was worth 12/6J. Putting it another way, food which, on the average of the four centres, would have cost 20/ : in 1909-13, and 21/7f in the year 1914, cost 30/5 in the March quarter of 1919 and no less than 34/2-1 in the March quarter of 1920.