English Translation

The Imperial Protector Prague, 13 August 1941 in Bohemia and Moravia No. I 3 g - 1080/6850 Strictly confidential ! An a) the gentlemen Head of Division I to IV b) all groups of Division II c) the Spatial Planning Group Office of the S'aa sik Ãs d) the central administration at the Fee oe in Behortatsa Message to: Eing 22. AUG. 1941 a) The office of the Secretary of State Tgb. Ne: b) " a v 82 Under-Secretaries of State c) the head of the party liaison office at the Reichsprotector in Bohemia and Moravia is concerned; index number for the cost of living in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Mähren per 1 annex In the last few months the question has repeatedly emerged whether the index number of the costs of living correctly reflects the occurring changes in the prices of the necessities of life. The main cause of the wrong assessment of index indices, even after the judgement of key social statisticians, is usually the emotional assessment of individual price reductions which are particularly eye-catching to the consumer, the insufficient knowledge of the task and calculation method of the index numbers and the perhaps somewhat misleading term "index rate of the cost of living". The index of the cost of living is a price index and not a cost index. Thus, the index rate of the costs of living does not reflect the development of the expenditure of living, but rather the evolution of the prices of the goods of the need for living. In order to be able to follow the reliable price movement, the prices for the goods of the life requirement are not compiled "arithmetically" but "balanced" using a uniform consumption scheme.