§ 16. Mr. MorganTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to have available (a) information on the United Kingdom gross domestic product per head in 1991 and (b) comparable information for the other member states of the European Community.
§ Mr. MaplesOctober, when 1991 population figures for the United Kingdom and other EC countries will be available.
§ Mr. MorganMay I draw the Economic Secretary's attention to a study that I have just received from the House of Commons Library's statistical section? According, to the author's best estimates, the average gross domestic product per head in this country in 1991 was five percentage points behind that of Italy. Can the hon. Gentleman confirm that that means that the average family in this country would be approximately £2,000 better off if it lived in Italy? Is this yet another case of "Excuse the mess, we have got the Conservatives in"?
§ Mr. MaplesI told the hon. Gentleman that I could not give him the information for which he asked until October, when the 1991 population figures would become available. I can tell him, however, that over the 1980s GDP per head in this country rose at an average rate of nearly 2½per cent. a year—faster than in Germany, France or Italy.
In 1974. Germany's GDP per head was 15 per cent. ahead of that of the United Kingdom; by 1979, after five years of Labour government, in was 19 per cent. ahead. In 1990, after I 1 years of Conservative government, the gap had been closed to 16 per cent. If the hon. Gentleman examines measures of GDP per head and compares this country with France, Germany or Italy, he will find that the gap widened under the last Labour Government and has closed under the present Government.