§ 10. Mr. CranTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what were the regional growth rates in the British economy in 1986–87; and what information he has on regional growth rates in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.
§ Mr. LawsonThe latest official estimates of United Kingdom regional money GDP growth, measured at factor cost, are for 1986. I shall arrange for the relevant information to be placed in the Official Report. Estimates for regional GDP, but on a somewhat different basis, are available for other EC countries in the Eurostat Yearbook of Regional Statistics, a copy of which may be obtained through the House Library.
§ Mr. CranIs my right hon. Friend aware that unemployment in my constituency of Beverley in east Yorkshire has fallen by the staggering total of 22 per cent. in the past year? Is it not an incontrovertible truth, and a fact that should be understood by the Labour Benches, that the Government's economic policy works in the north of England as well as in the south?
§ Mr. LawsonMy hon. Friend is right. One of the most encouraging signs of the current strength of the economy is the way in which prosperity is spreading throughout the economy and unemployment is coming down throughout the economy. Only the other day I was looking at the figures for job vacancy advertisements in some of the leading regional papers. It was interesting to note that in the Manchester Evening News job vacancy advertisements are up 26 per cent. from a year ago; in the Bradford Telegraph and Argus they are up 40 per cent. and in the Birmingham Evening Mail they are up 41 per cent. My hon. Friend will be particularly interested to know that job advertisements in the Yorkshire Post are up 61 per cent.
§ Mr. MaclennanIs the Chancellor not worried by the expansion of domestic credit—[Interruption.]—as manifested by the inflation of house and property prices in the south-east? If he is to take corrective action on interest rates, which he was hinting to the Wall Street Journal, will he also take action to protect those parts of the regional economy that are not suffering from these problems?
§ Mr. LawsonAs I pointed out, one of the most encouraging aspects of the current economic scene is the way in which prosperity is now spread throughout the country, and in which unemployment in particular has gone down faster in many regions than in the south-east of England. Of course there is a regional imbalance; there always has been. When the hon. Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Mr. Maclennan) was a member of the Labour party—I do not know his party now—and indeed a junior Minister, there was a regional imbalance. But all parts of the economy are growing faster now than they were then.
§ Mr. OppenheimBearing in mind the effects on growth of exchange rates, can my right hon. Friend tell us the cost of supporting the dollar last year and the loss in sterling terms? Does he think that it was money well spent?
§ Mr. LawsonWe do not publish figures of the exchange equalisation account and its operations, for obvious reasons. No previous Government have done so. If the House wants to investigate this matter, a perfectly proper channel for that is an investigation by the Public Accounts Committee, as indeed occurred in 1978. At that time the practice of the Government, which was the same as this Government's, was endorsed. As for intervention in the foreign exchange markets, it is a very foolish Government who refrain from intervention in foreign exchange markets in all circumstances.
§ Mr. SkinnerWhen the Chancellor of the Exchequer has looked through all those newspapers at the situations vacant columns, and perhaps found himself a job, will he tell the Prime Minister first? When he has done with it, will he get all the bundles of papers together and pass them to the leader of the SDP, because he is looking for a job, and then pass them on to the Liberal Chief Whip, because he is looking for a job, and then to the present leader of the Liberal party/SDP, because he is looking as well?
§ Mr. LawsonI do not think it would be right of me to intrude into this delicate subject of rather private grief.
§ Following is the information:
| Regional increases in money GDP (percentage changes on year earlier, current prices, factor cost) | |
| 11986 | |
| North | 11.3 |
| Yorkshire and Humberside | 9.2 |
| East Midlands | 10.2 |
| East Anglia | 12.3 |
| South-East | 11.7 |
| South-West | 11.6 |
| West Midlands | 8.4 |
| North-West | 9.3 |
| Wales | 7.7 |
| Scotland | 7.7 |
| Northern Ireland | 7.1 |
| United Kingdom2 | 10.3 |
| 1 Provisional. | |
| 2 Excluding the continental shelf region. |
§ Source: Economic Trends, November 1987, page 86.
§ 11. Mr. BaldryTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the United Kingdom annual inflation-adjusted rate of growth since 1981; and what equivalent information he has about the United Kingdom's major competitors.
§ Mr. MajorBetween 1981 and 1987, total output in the United Kingdom grew on average by over 3 per cent. a year. That is faster than in any of the other seven major industrial countries except Japan.
§ Mr. BaldryIs it not particularly gratifying that, in 1987, growth in United Kingdom manufacturing output was dramatically higher than in any other country in the Group of Seven? Will my right hon. Friend consider going halves with me in buying every Opposition Member a copy of the recent issue of "Fortune" magazine, so that they 461 may have a better comprehension of the dramatic and continuing improvement of the United Kingdom economy?
§ Mr. MajorI entirely agree with my hon. Friend's first point. On his second point, I am not entirely sure that it would be money well spent, but I am prepared to try it. For my hon. Friend's interest, and that of the Opposition, I affirm that, since 1980, in manufacturing alone, output per British worker has risen by more than 5 per cent. a year. That is even faster than at any time in the 1960s.