The chairman's declaration claims that RZP Co has delivered growth in every year in dividends earnings and ordinary share price apart from 2002. Analysis demonstrates that the chairman is correct in excluding 2002 when no growth occurred in dividends earnings fell by 29·2% and real dividends fell by 4·8%. Analysis as well shows that no growth in real dividends occurred in 2003 and that the company's share price fell by 16·3% in 2004. It is probable the chairman mayn't have been referring to real dividend growth in which case his statement could be amended. But shareholders will be aware of the decline in share price in 2004 or could calculate the decline from the information provided so the chairman cannot claim that RZP Co has delivered share price growth in 2004. In reality the statement could explain the reasons for the decline in share price in order to reassure shareholders. It as well possible for the five-year summary to be extended to include annual share price data such as minimum, maximum and average share price thus that shareholders have this information readily available.

The chairman's declaration claims that RZP Co has consistently delivered above-average performance. The company may have carry out above- or below-average performance in individual years but without further information in the form of sector averages for individual years it isn't possible to reach a conclusion on this point. An average growth rates for the sector can't therefore be used to comment on the performance of RZP Co in individual years. If the company has constantly delivered above-average performance however the company's average annual growth rates should be greater than the sector averages.

The growth rates is able to be compared as follows

It is able to be seen that if the sector average growth rates are arithmetic mean growth rates the chairman's statement is correct. If the sector average growth rates are equal annual growth rates however merely the nominal dividend growth rate is greater than the sector average. The foundation on which the sector average growth rates have been prepared should therefore be clarified in order to determine whether the chairman's statement is correct.