§ Mr. Nottasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table showing, from international sources of information available to him, the rate of domestic credit expansion up to the latest available date in the current financial year of each of the nine EEC countries, the United States of America and Japan.
§ Mr. Joel Barnett,pursuant to his reply of Tuesday 11th November, gave the following reply:
The table below shows the yearly growth in domestic credit up to the end of the first quarter of the 1975–76 financial year derived from International Financial Statistics—the latest quarterly information available. Figures for the first quarter of the 1975–76 financial year for the United Kingdom and Italy are not yet available: the figures given are the yearly growth to the end of the 1974–75 financial year. Later information on the first quarter of the 1975–76 financial year is available for the United Kingdom on the United Kingdom definition of credit expansion. There are, 796W however, important differences both in coverage and the method of valuation between the definitions used by the United Kingdom—for example in the Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin—and by International Financial Statistics, which render the figures non-comparable. For the flow of domestic credit expansion in the second quarter of the 1975 calendar year and the difficulties in calculating a proportionate change in the stock of domestic credit—United Kingdom definition—I would refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Paymaster-General to the hon. Member for Horsham and Crawley (Mr. Hordern) on 30th October [Vol. 898, c. 594].
Country Rate of Domestic Credit Expansion over previous year at end second quarter 1975 (except where stated) (nearest per cent.) United Kingdom 15 (1st Quarter 1975) Germany 8 France 17 Italy 23 (1st Quarter 1975) Netherlands 15 Belgium 11 Luxembourg Not available Ireland 11 Denmark 20 United States of America 4 Japan 15 SourceInternational Financial Statistics, November 1975 (line 32).