§ Mr. Trotterasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if the value of the £ sterling was 100 pence on 1st January 1974, what its real value on 1st July 1978 was.
§ Mr. Denzil DaviesThe General Index of Retail Prices—RPI—is available to618W June 1978 and estimates of real personal disposable income to the first quarter of 1978.
In June 1978 the internal purchasing power of the £, as calculated from the RPI and based on £1=100 pence in June 1974 was 55 pence.
But comparing the first quarter of this year with the first quarter of 1974, consumers had nearly twice as many £s in their pockets each worth 53 pence. Overall, and in real terms, for every £1 consumers had in their pockets, in the first quarter of 1974, they had £1.04 pence four years later.
§ Mr. Trotterasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how the value of the £1 sterling now compares with the value at 1st March 1978 in real terms.
§ Mr. Denzil DaviesThe General Index of Retail Prices is available to June 1978.
In June 1978 the internal purchasing power of the £, based on March 1978, was 97 pence. No estimates are yet available as to changes in real personal disposable income over this period.