Weekly Wholesale Index: Sixth Report

Abstract

This index began with January, 1923. It then employed weights (quantity coefficients) based on those of the War Industries Board. These were for the year 1917.1 In 1924, I revised the weights to conform with those of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics based on the census data for 1919.2 These same weights, with minor changes, were used throughout 1925, '26, and '27. From the beginning, my index was a continuous one, spliced on to the monthly index of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. The splicing was first made as of November, 1922, when the index of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics stood at 156. That is, the base period was the central week of the month, ending November 17, and the base number of the new weekly index was taken as 156. On this base number the index a year later (for the week ending November 16, 1923) was 151.9. This, in turn, was taken as the base number for 1924, and the index for mid-December, 1924, was found to be 155.6. On this new base number for 1925, the index number for mid-December, 1925, was 159.5. With this as the base number for 1926, the index for the last week of December, 1926, was 146.1. In like manner, taking 146.1 as the base number for 1927, the index for the last week of December of that year was 145.1. Thus the weekly index, beginning with mid-November, 1922, was computed on a series or chain of intermediate bases, each fixed for one year. The complete chain index series is given in Table I, together with the figures of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics for the nearest comparable month. The close correspondence of the two indexes independently computed is remarkable but not surprising. Tables II, III, IV, and V bring down to the end of 1927 the weekly,