§ Mr. Pattieasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection if he will give the price index figure for the latest available month of the following items, using March 1974 as a base of 100: electricity, gas, domestic coal, postage—second class letter, telephone—private subscriber local call, rail fares, finished steel, bus fares and motoring costs.
§ Mr. Maclennan:The information is set out below. Separate indices are not available for bus fares so figures have been given for total fares and the rail fares component. The motoring costs index includes a small element of cycling costs. From movements in the intervening years it will be seen that the increases were concentrated in the first half of the period and, in the case of a number of the nationalised industries reflected in part the phasing out of accumulated deficits.
figures conceal differing trends over time, the latest annual increases are also given. These illustrate the marked reduction in the rate of increase for the United Kingdom relative to that for other countries.
No indices of total prices are available, but a broad measure of domestically generated inflation can be obtained by dividing current price estimates of gross domestic product—GDP—or gross national 847W product—GNP—by the corresponding estimates at constant prices. This has
CONSUMER PRICES February 1974–November 1978 Latest 12 months(November 1977–November 1978) Percentage increase West German … … … … … … … 20.5 2.3 Luxembourg … … … … … … … 40.4 3.2 Netherlands … … … … … … … 40.9 4.0 USA … … … … … … … 42.7 9.0 Japan … … … … … … … 46.0 3.4 Belgium … … … … … … … 48.3 3.8 Canada … … … … … … … 51.6 8.9 Denmark … … … … … … … 60.1 7.1 France … … … … … … … 60.3 9.5 Ireland … … … … … … … 93.1 7.9 United Kingdom … … … … … … 99.1 8.1 Italy … … … … … … … 103.9 11.5 (up to October 1978 only) (October 1977–October 1978)
TOTAL OUTPUT DEFLATORS 1st quarter 1974–3rd quarter 1978 Latest 12 months (3rd quarter 1977–3rd quarter 1978) Percentage increase West Germany (GNP) … … … … … 24 4¼ Japan (GNP) … … … … … 31½ 5 USA (GNP) … … … … … 38 7½ Canada (GNP) … … … … … 48½ 6¾ United Kingdom (GDP) … … … … … 98 9¾ Italy (GDP) … … … … … 97 12 (up to 2nd quarter 1978 only) (2nd quarter 1977 2nd quarter 1978) Sources: OECD Main Economic Indicators. National Sources.