Úr þjóðarbúskapnum - 01.12.1961, Síða 67

CONSUMERS’ EXPENDITURE
port Statistics (4), Agricultural Statistics (7)
and Manufacturing Statistics (8). Prices were
obtained from the Statistical Bulletin (5). and
wholesalers’ calculations, adding retail mark-
ups in accordance with regulations of the
price control office (6) recipes were received
from food manufacturing firms, to calculate
raw materials entering processing.
For meat products, the following assump-
tions were made — that all meat from slaugh-
terhouses entered the retail market and far-
mers’ used only home slaughtered. As it is
customary to slaughter only in September, we
assumed that meat from 1956 slaughtering was
used for the first 9 months of 1957 and from
1957 slaughtering for 3 months in 1957, and
correspondingly in 1958.
Consumption of fish was based on estima-
tes made by the Statistical Office for the con-
sumption of raw fish equivalents (gutted) per
person, adjusted for canned and salt fish
consumption.
Statistics of milk and dairy production are
available, as well as of sale. Deductions were
made for deliveries of milk and eggs to the
U.S. forces, and for the use of fresh milk in
processing. Calculations for other foods were
made in a corresponding way.
Data on Consumption of Alcoholic Bever-
ages and Tobacco were obtained from the
State Monopolies. Production of Non-alcohol-
ic Drinks is liable to special tax and the
quantity is therefore recorded.
C.i.f. values of imported Clothing and cloth-
ing materials were obtained from Import Sta-
tistics, and multipliers obtained from whole-
salers’ calculations. Icelandic production is
recorded by the Statistical Office by quantity
(8) and these quantities were multiplied by
prices obtained from retailers or frankly esti-
mated. An estimated amount, representing 55%
of Icelandic ready-to-wear clothing was de-
ducted from clothing materials, to allow for
use of clothing fabrics and tailors’ findings in
production. 90% of the yarns were deemed to
go into weaving and knitting factories.
A special study was made on the Cost of
Housing. Direct enquiries on rent are not
sufficient, as the actual rents are higher than
the controlled and declared rents. A standard
house was built in 1954/55 in Reykjavík and
the carrying cost and expenditure for repairs
would amount to about 8.2% of the building
cost or vahie of residential buildings. Thc
nearest approximation to market value is the
fire insurance value of buildings, i. e. about
90% of market value or cost of construction.
We obtained the fire insurance valuation of
all buildings in Iceland. Estimates were made
for houses used partly for residences and
partly for professional purposes, and correc-
tions to bring the data to 1957 and 1958 lev-
els. It was deemed that the rent obtained
equalled the cost, and that the imputed rent
would be therefore equal to the obtainable
rent. The imputcd annual rent for tax pur-
poses is, however, only 8.5% of the low, statu-
tory real estate value for property tax pur-
poses. A sample was taken from tax returns
in Reykjavík for 75 houses and it was found
that about 58% of tbe dwellings were owner-
occupied and compared with the computed
rent (from fire insurance valuation),. the taxed
rent amounted to onlv 33.4%. A correction
taking the hidden income into account was
made in the total personal incomes.
The Cost of Heating by natural hot water
was calculated from samples of thermal
water usage in 60 houses in Reykjavík, in
1957, and from calculations of average oil use
per m8 of space, multiplied by the estimated
average number of cubic metres of housing
per person. Certain adjustments were made
for climatic differences and customs. The ex-
penditure on domestic use of Electricity was
obtained from the Director of the State
Electricity Service.
Durable Household Goods have recently
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