HC Deb 10 July 1978 vol 953 cc398-401W
Mr. Lawson

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give estimates of the net interest payments made in each financial year from 1965–66 to 1977–78 and the total payments of interest made on total public sector debt held outside the public sector as defined in the fifth line from the bottom of table 1 of the article "Public Sector Debt" published in Economic Trends in May 1977; and if he will estimate its share of gross domestic product and gross national product in the years in question.

Mr. Joel Barnett

The figures are given in the table below:

Table C in the February 1978 issue of Financial Statistics, up-dated to include figures for 31st March 1977, and with minor revisions for the years 1974 to 1976 inclusive. 1978 figures for this table will be available in early 1979, and will again be published in Financial Statistics.

Table 2 is derived from table 1 and from figures of GNP; the latter have also been revised slightly since the article was written, affecting some of the ratios in

PUBLIC SECTOR DEBT RATIOS
Percentages at 31st March each year
1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971
Percentage of total debt that is held outside public sector … … … … … 76.4 74.6 73.7 73.7 71.9 70.6
Public debt held outside sector as percentage of GNP (at factor cost) … … … … 110.3 107.9 109.3 104.6 98.0 89.1
Debt held overseas as percentage of debt held outside public sector … … … … 17.7 17.0 20.3 21.2 18.0 15.9
Debt held overseas as percentage of GNP (at factor cost) … … … … … 19.5 18.3 22.2 22.2 17.6 14.2
Foreign currency debt as a percentage of debt held outside public sector … … … 4.9 4.8 5.6 5.5 5.4 5.2
Percentages at 31st March each year
1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 7977
Percentage of total debt that is held outside public sector … … … … … 70.3 69.1 69.4 70.6 71.8 73.7
Public debt held outside sector as percentage of GNP (at factor cost) … … … … 85.6 74.7 70.4 65.6 67.0 71.1
Debt held overseas as percentage of debt held outside public sector … … … … 14.8 15.3 14.8 15.2 15.1 15.7
Debt held overseas as percentage of GNP (at factor cost) … … … … … 12.7 11.4 10.4 10.0 10.1 11.1
Foreign currency debt as a percentage of debt held outside public sector … … … 4.5 4.7 6.9 9.0 10.2 12.0

Mr. Lawson

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out for the public sector as a whole and for its constituent sectors, namely, central Government, local authorities and public corporations, total payments of debt interest on the definition used in table 14 of the Financial Statement for each financial year from 1966–67 to 1978–79; and if he will give comparable estimates for general Government and public corporations on the basis used in table 6, drawing attention where appropriate to double counting or other biases which may he relevant when interpreting the figures.

Mr. Joel Barnett

The figures are given in the table below. In consolidating the figures for the central Government

DEBT INTEREST PAYMENTS
£ million
Public corporations
Public sector Central Government Local authorities General government To general government (a) Other Total (a)
1966–67 … … 1,592 1,060 624 1,503 379 89 468
1967–68 … … 1,811 1,171 704 1,668 463 143 606
1968–69 … … 1,941 1,249 826 1,826 546 115 661
1969–70 … … 2,066 1,269 975 1,951 607 115 722
1970–71 … … 2,129 1,294 1,066 2,004 687 125 812
1971–72 … … 2,298 1,462 1,121 2,178 767 120 887
1972–73 … … 2,485 1,622 1,189 2,349 864 136 1,000
1973–74 … … 3,284 1,951 1,608 2,981 949 303 1,252
1974–75 … … 4,182 2,273 2,153 3,695 1,219 487 1,706

table 2. The latest available version of table 2 is presented below:

and local authority subsectors to give figures for the general Government sector, and in consolidating figures for the central Government, local authority and public corporation subsectors to give figures for the total public sector, payments of debt interest between the subsectors are eliminated so far as is possible. Interest on central Government debt held by local authorities and public corporations, and on local authority debt held by public corporations, is not eliminated for lack of information, but is known to be relatively small.

Estimates of the kind requested are already published in respect of calendar years 1966 to 1976 in Tables 6.2, 7.1, 8.1 and 9.1 of the National Income and Expenditure Blue Book 1966–76.

£ million
Public corporations
Public sector Central Government Local authorities General government To general government (a) Other Total (a)
1975–76 … … 5,091 2,959 2,537 4,539 1,452 552 2,004
1976–77 … … 6,443 3,912 2,938 5,691 1,675 752 2,427
1977–78 … … 7,376 4,811 3,151 6,694 1,776 682 2,458
1978–79 forecast … 8,411 5,706 3,082 7,541 1,719 870 2,589
Notes:
(a) Including dividend payments.
(b) The debt interest figures shown in tables 6 and 14 of the Financial Statement are total payments and are considerably larger than the debt interest component of public expenditure, which, as explained in page 17 of the Financial Statement, excludes payments matched by interest receipts or provision for interest from trading surpluses or rent.
Source: National accounts and Financial Statement and Budget Report 1978–79.