§ 39. Mr. Jayasked the Minister of Labour what was the percentage increase in the interim index of retail prices between the monthly average for 1948 and 1949 and between 1949 and 1950; and what was the corresponding increase for 1956 over 1955.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodThe figures are: 2.8 per cent., 3.1 per cent., and 5.0 per cent. respectively. The increases during each of those three years were 3.5, 3.2 and 3.0 per cent. respectively.
§ Mr. JayIs it not plain from those figures that the Minister was misleading the House in a recent debate when he said that the rise in the cost of living was less last year then in any of the previous years?
§ Mr. MacleodI am afraid that this is one of the very rare occasions on which both the right hon. Gentleman and I are both right. What I said to the House was that the rise in the index was less 590 than in any year since 1953, and the second part of my Answer shows that that is so. But the right hon. Gentleman is equally right. If one takes a comparison of the average of the monthly figures over 24 months, year by year, that does alter the figures, as the first part of my Answer indicates.