§ Mr. Lawsonasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will publish a table showing the percentage change in the sterling price of oil, in real terms, (a) between June 1970 and March 1974 and (b) between March 1974 and the latest available date.
§ Dr. John Cunningham:A table is given below. The oil price index is based 597W on the sterling price, fob, of Arab light oil, the present OPEC marker crude. This index is converted into real terms by dividing it by the implicit deflator for United Kingdom gross domestic product —GDP. While it is possible to show the
Sterling oil price GDP deflator* Real oil price index Changes from previous period June 1970 100 100 100 — March 1974 780 142 549 449 August 1978 1,453 277 525 —4 1st January 1979 1,452 n/a n/a n/a *The GDP deflator on a monthly basis is obtained by linear interpolation from the quarterly series.