2.3 Other economic indices

The Statistical Office of Finland began to compile and publish the wholesale price index in 1924. This index measures the price development of goods from the producer's point of view. The base year for the index was 1913. Time series have been calculated retrospectively for the wholesale price index to 1878 using research materials. Customs statistics on the volumes and values of exports and imports have been used to calculate unit value indices for exports and imports (export or import prices for a certain unit, kilograms or numbers) since 1921. Calculation of the index for sale prices of agricultural produce (i.e. the prices received by the farmer) was started in 1932.

The first building cost index was compiled in 1942, with the base period set at 1935. This index measures the price development of factors of production in building and construction: wages, materials, and planning. The first series for the volume index of industrial production dates back to 1954. This index measures the change in the volume of goods produced in manufacturing industry relative to base period.

Describing share prices on the stock exchange, the Unitas index was launched in 1927. The first index describing wages and salaries was the wage earnings index 1938=100, which follows the change in the average gross wages paid to employees (the index does not take account of changes in taxation or in indirect labour costs). Data on the incomes of wage earners in industry and agriculture have been published since the early twentieth century.

Statistical data on the development of housing rents are available from 1925 onwards. Price and index series on owner-occupied flats are available from 1970. Price indices on real estate transactions (detached houses and plots of land for detached houses) have been compiled since 1985.

The following graph illustrates price trends in Finland and Sweden in 1830-1914, 1860=100.
These trends followed very similar patterns in the two countries up to the First World War.

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