The Labour Ministry's official figures of the cost of living, based on the cost of the staple commodity ies used by a working class family, show a steady reduction since last November. The index figure at that time was 176 representing that number of points increase over the cost of living in July, 1914. By January 1, 1921, it had dropped to 169, a fall of 11 points. And by the time this has reached Shanghai there is every reason to expect that it will have fallen to 150.
Had the retailer passed on to the customer the great reductions in wholesale prices—the figure would be even less. Cocoa, tea, flour, and all the materials used in the manufacture of soap and margarine, have all been largely reduced in, price to the manufacturer and dealer, without any reduction on a like scale to the consumer.
The conspicuous reductions in prices apply more to unessential foodstuffs, jams and tinned goods than to those} commodities used by everyone.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.