§ 23. Mr. Roy Jenkinsasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the movement in the retail price index from the change in the Bank Rate on 19th September, 1957, to the most recent convenient date; and what was the movement in the comparable period a year earlier.
§ Mr. JenkinsIs not it clear from the figures so published that the rate of price increase over the winter 1956–57 was less than that of the past winter and, therefore, that in so far as the policy of 19th September was specifically attached to the prevention of a price increase, what the Chancellor is now doing is not building on the success of the policy of his right hon. Friend the Member for Monmouth (Mr. Thorneycroft), but escaping from its ruins?
Mr. AmoryThe position about the retail price index figures is as the hon. Member said. The increase in 1957 was 2.4 per cent., whereas in 1958 it was 2.9 per cent. However, my assessment of the degree of stability which we have reached depends on a good many other indications apart from that, and I am satisfied that in general there is a greater measure of stability in the price level of today than there was a year ago.