These figures suggest the impact of National Socialist economic policies on the condition of working people in Germany. Each set of data is expressed in relation to an "index" number, 100, which provides a baseline for comparison over time and between different sorts of information. In the case of "Money Wages," "Real Wages," and "Cost-of-Living" the index year is 1913/1914; the index year for "Real Earnings" is 1925. According to the information contained in this chart, therefore, "Real Earnings" in 1929 were only slightly higher than they had been in 1913/1914, and continued to fall until 1933. What these data suggest is that the effect of Nazi economic policies was to arrest the deterioration of living conditions brought on by the world-wide economic depression. But they also show that these policies did little to improve living conditions, once stability had been restored. In order to avoid a repeat of the disastrous hyperinflation of 1919-1923, wages and prices were kept under strict control. Indeed, real wages continued to fall, however slightly, until 1936, even as the cost of living increased. On the whole, economic recovery benefited industrial production and profits most. For most Germans, the Hitler's regime did not restore a standard of living they had enjoyed before the Depression hit in 1929.