§ Mr. YeoTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made towards the target set in 2000 for achievement in 2001–04, to improve the economic performance of all regions, as measured by the trend in growth of each region's GDP per capita. [83687]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 26 November 2002]: It is not possible yet to assess whether there has been an improvement against the baseline for this target. This is because of the long-term nature of the target and the time lags in getting the relevant information to measure the target.
843WMeasurement of trend rates of growth per capita will use a similar methodology to that used by the Treasury to estimate national trend GDP growth i.e. by calculating average growth rates between points when the economy can be identified a being 'on trend'.