HC Deb 23 January 1968 vol 757 cc204-5
29. Mr. Wingfield Digby

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer by how much investment in the public sector rose in the third quarter of this year, before devaluation.

Mr. Roy Jenkins

Public sector fixed investment, revalued at 1958 prices and seasonally adjusted, increased by 1½ per cent, between the second and third quarters of 1967.

Mr. Digby

Did it not increase by no less than 7 per cent, in the previous quarter, at a time when investment in manufacturing industry was declining? Is not this most undesirable?

Mr. Jenkins

I am not quite sure what the hon. Gentleman thinks is undesirable, he fact that there was a greater increase in the second quarter or a very much smaller increase in the third quarter.