§ Mr. Hamiltonasked the Minister of Food the percentage increase in food prices in each of the past seven years; the respective annual rate of food subsidies in each, of those years; and the percentage increase or decrease in the prices of imported food in the same period.
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeThe following table gives the available information. The changes in retail prices are based on the old Cost-of-Living Index up to May, 1947, and thereafter on the Interim Index of Retail Prices which superseded it, and was itself revised in January, 1952. No general measure of import prices is available for the years before 1949, when the present Import Prices Index was introduced. The food subsidy figure given for each year relates to the financial year beginning in April of that year.
Year Annual Percentage Changes Food Subsidy Food Retail Prices Increase or Decrease Import Prices of Food and Drink Increase or Decrease £ millions 1946 … - 0.6 n.a 325 1947 … - 0.6 n.a 392 1948 … + 4.4 n.a 484 1949 … + 11.1 + 4 425 1950 … + 5.5 + 12 400 1951 … + 18.0 + 12 414 1952 … + 9.2 - 4 335 1953 (7 months) + 2.3 - 1 n.a