Inflation - when will it stop?

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468144#Comment_120468144

https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-elcq/earningsandlabourcostsq32022finalq42022preliminaryestimates/

Key Findings

• Average weekly earnings were €900.26 in Q4 2022, an increase of 4.2% from €863.70 in Q4 2021.
• Average hourly earnings rose by 5.5% to €27.72 from €26.27 in Q4 2021.
• Average weekly paid hours were 32.5 in Q4 2022, down by 1.2% from the Q4 2021 value of 32.9.
• The job vacancy rate at the end of Q4 2022 was 1.3%, slightly down from 1.4% at the end of Q4 2021 and down from 1.6% at the end of Q3 2022.
• Average hourly other labour costs grew by 38.4% to €4.54 from €3.28 in Q4 2021.
• The highest averages for hourly total labour costs were €50.69 in Information & Communication and €47.36 in Education.
• The lowest averages for hourly total labour costs were €16.95 in Accommodation & Food Services and €23.44 in Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services.
• The Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities sector had the highest job vacancy rate at 3.1% in Q4 2022, followed by 2.6% in the Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities.

BoxcarWilliam99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468191#Comment_120468191

Salary increases based on performance and profitability.

Not just " because"

Banzai600

talking to someone up northern ireland at the weekend, they have the same issue with price hikes. but he said not on the scale of down here - from what they said they've read and are hearing about our plight down here.

We're being shafted at every turn as a consumer on everything. Good aul ireland - make the fast buck, milk everyone for what you can - great ethic.

but then we know ppl who moan about their shopping bills, yet still buy main brands , go to places like rebraned superquinn - spending triple what we do in a month per two ppl. We shop between tesco, dunnes , lidl and aldi for certain items, and go to each one every other week - which means we dont spend our weekends in shops.

we buy a lot of meat in the butchers, probably 90% of it, and its savage how much the prices have gone up. we did have the discussion with both butchers, they say its out of their hands. We want to suppoort both of them, but its coming close to the time whereby we wont be going to a butcher for meat and our neighbours said the same.

we used to use the tesco online shopping but the minimum charge for delievry has gone up - great move tesco - they use hybrid vans ffs, not sure its justified myself.

Nermal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120462924#Comment_120462924

Regardless of the source, inflation is always solvable through interest rates. They just aren't nearly high enough.

Water John

Interest rates rises is a very blunt instrument and stifles actual growth.

Wanderer78

enormous amount of profiteering occurring at the moment.....

....might be causing a few issues at the moment....

realitykeeper

The multinationals are the main pillar supporting the Irish economy. What impacts them, impacts us. And the US dollar strength or weakness has a bearing on multinationals here. If the US dollar goes into decline, Ireland is in trouble. (It would be great for the global south). Multinationals would start laying off workers and closing down if the dollar weakens.

That would impact us even more than rising inflation.

The world is slowly de-dollsarizing. That is not good.

Nermal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468484#Comment_120468484

That's the point.

salonfire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468109#Comment_120468109

As can be seen, due to rising inflation during 2021 to 2023, real wages have been falling in the public service.

Well, duh? What is the point you're trying to make? That's why it's called inflation and why it can be a problem.

If everyone's pay was increased inline with inflation, then it wouldn't be inflation anymore would it?

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120471678#Comment_120471678

I've seen articles from the 1970s talking about OPEC trying to untie the oil benchmark from dollars because they were fed up of western inflation eroding their profits

50 years later, the dollar is still king

I'm not saying the dollar will never be displaced as the main reserve currency of the world, but I don't see it happening anytime soon

It is likely going to weaken but that's from a position of being very overvalued to begin with

And what will replace it? Not sure the world is ready to invest in yuan which can be controlled by the Chinese government anytime they want. Maybe the Euro, but the ECB doesn't seem to be willing to provide the same level of credit guarantees that the Fed is, so it's less attractive

And there's also the fact that the USA is still the largest economy in the world and therefore one of the largest consumers and providers. If you buy something from them they're going to want to be paid in dollars, and if you sell to them they're going to pay you in dollars and tell you to f**k off if you want anything else

realitykeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120482020#Comment_120482020

Asking what will replace the US dollar is a bit like asking what will happen after you die. It doesn`t really matter if we are ready for it or if we want it or not. It will happen either way. Over the past fifty years the purchasing power of the US dollar has been falling and in recent years the FED had interest rates at zero for a long time which is why we are now at the end game. If you look at the decline in the value of the dollar over the last hundred years you will notice a levelling off in it`s decline in recent years because of zero % interest rates. The FED can`t go below zero and that is a problem. Now it is trying to raise interest rates to fight inflation and if it gives up the fight it can only lower rates to zero which won`t be enough to stabilize the US economy. If it goes negative, other problems will arise.

brickster69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120482881#Comment_120482881

A good example, another 2 bundles need to be added to the pile to bring it up to date.It's not really that gold has gone up more that the currency is worth less than it was.

Water John

Optimum inflation seem s to be 2/2.5%. Once you extrapolate that over a long period of time, of course currency loses value in relation to commodities. Back to the acre of land, as they don't make it anymore. Price now about €15K. What price was it 90 years ago?

walterking

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468224#Comment_120468224

Food inflation in Norther Ireland is quite a bit higher than down here, but because their media is more a UK wide media with little "local" media, the price increases don't make headline news.

I'm in NI quite a bit. I've shopped in Asda for my needs when up there, but would not be bothered to bring anything back "home" as prices are quite similar and on many things are more expensive

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120471678#Comment_120471678

The world is not de-dollarizing. An institution will hold a basket of currencies. It will typically consist of USD, euro, GBP, CHF, JPY, sometimes Aus dollar/Singapore dollar/Korean won, and in very limited and particular circumstances a sliver RMB. But utterly dominated by USD holdings.

What to all those currencies have in common? They are freely convertible, not subject to capital controls, highly-liquid, highly bankable jump when the US Fed jumps, and duck when the US Fed ducks (and except for the yen for unique reasons). It's broadly called the eurodollar system these days. The dollar is largely hegemonic, but these little brother currencies basically have the same features as it.

Why do you think developing countries maintain dollar pegs? Do you think countries and producers want Lula Kremlin barter tokens that lock them into linear and non-market responsive trade arrangements with a poor country instead of hard currency that they can 1. bank anywhere at will 2. allocate capital as they wish and 3. allowing for stable and predictable trading with whoever they see fit?

We already saw this in the Soviet Union. Developing countries were bounced into barter relationships with the USSR, where they got left wellies, 20 year out of date radios, and Turnips from the Russians in exchange for whatever commodities the Russians wanted. This impoverished the countries that had the misfortune to be locked in a cruel serf relationship with the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, Russia and other countries in the Eastern bloc were desperate to get their hands on...you guessed it...US dollars.

There is nothing credible out there to replace the dollar system. Not magic autocrat barter monopoly money, not returning to the gold standard and crude mercantilism, not erratic crypto hype coins.

Antipathetic

Is this a recent thing or just something that I haven't noticed before. My virgin media contract is up next month so I'm pre-emptively shopping around for deals because no way I'm paying €70 a month for just broadband.

eir's website it says they increase the price every April by CPI + 3%. This seems ridiculous. I doubt the phone lines and backend equipment are demanding yearly pay rises and even the energy excuse doesn't really wash with me because such a large company would have a special deal with an energy provider and pay much less, than us average consumers.

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120493966#Comment_120493966

They do it in the UK too, an example of "greedflation" if there ever was one. It effectively locks you into switching every year if you have one of these providers. Digiweb don't do the annual increases, at least not yet.

Antipathetic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120494169#Comment_120494169

Another example of why important infrastructure such as in this case telecoms, which is vital to society should never have been sold off to the vultures in private firms.

BoxcarWilliam99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120493966#Comment_120493966

And when these companies that control vital infrastructure fail they get bailed out with tax payers money .

PokeHerKing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120504425#Comment_120504425

If they were publicly run there'd be mucho waste of tax payers money as well.

So either way you'd be getting robbed.