§ Mr. Knoxasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each year since 1945 (a) the total amount of debt interest paid by the Government on the definition used before Command Paper No. 6721 introduced the new concept of debt interest payments, (b) the total amount of debt interest paid by the Government on the definition used before Command Paper No. 6721 introduced the new concept of debt interest in terms of 1977 prices and (c) the total amount of debt interest paid by the Government on 144W the definition used before Command Paper No. 6721 introduced the new concept of debt interest as a percentage of gross domestic product.
§ Mr. Joel Barnett:The information is shown below:
PUBLIC SECTOR DEBT INTEREST PAYMENTS* £ million current prices £ million 1977 prices As percentage of GDP at market prices 1946 536 —† 5.4 1947 567 —† 5.3 1948 600 3,399 5.1 1949 626 3,459 5.0 1950 631 3,442 4.9 1951 688 3,487 4.8 1952 760 3,545 4.8 1953 801 3,629 4.7 1954 816 3,640 4.6 1955 902 3,868 4.7 1956 923 3,719 4.5 1957 945 3,673 4.3 1958 1,040 3,888 4.6 1959 1,060 3,914 4.4 1960 1,165 4,249 4.6 1961 1,257 4,435 4.6 1962 1,257 4,273 4.4 1963 1,286 4,271 4.2 1964 1,354 4,336 4.1 1965 1,456 4,442 4.1 1966 1,553 4,537 4.1 1967 1,711 4,855 4.3 1968 1,907 5,189 4.4 1969 2,049 5,285 4.4 1970 2,144 5,154 4.7 1971 2,211 4,867 3.9 1972 2,408 4,910 3.8 1973 2,981 5,695 4.1 1974 4,031 6,685 4.9 1975 4,761 6,197 4.6 1976 6,139 6,955 5.0 1977 7,203 7,203 5.1 *Total public sector debt interest payments to the private sector and overseas. †Estimates not available.