§ Mr. Knoxasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each current member State of the EEC, the United States of America and Japan for each year since 1974 gross national product at factor cost per head of population.
§ Mr. BiffenThe latest available information is given in the table below. Comparative estimates of gross domestic product published by international organisations are given in terms of market prices; and they are normally converted to a common unit of measurement on the basis of official or market rates of exchange. The use of these exchange rates in this context can be misleading since they do not necessarily reflect the relative purchasing power of national currencies in terms of the goods and services available in the countries being compared. It it generally recognised that a more realistic assessment of relative levels of GDP can be made through the use of purchasing power parities. Detailed estimates on this basis for the member countries of the EEC have been published by the statistical office of the European Communities (SOEC) and the results are reproduced in the table. For the United States and Japan similar estimates up to 1975 based on purchasing power parities have been produced by the United Nations but due to differences in methodology these figures are not directly comparable with the SOEC estimates. The figures for these two countries given in the table have been partially estimated by the Central Statistical Office and adjusted to bring them broadly into line with the estimates for the EEC countries.
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GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT AT CURRENT MARKET PRICES PER HEAD OF TOTAL POPULATION 1974 1975 1976 1977 1974 1975 1976 1977 Based on current exchange rates EUA(*) Based on current purchasing power parities Purchasing power standards W Germany 5,159 5,473 6 497 7 371 4 392 4,905 5,676 6,331 France 4,250 5,175 5,905 6,286 4,195 4,787 5,452 6,060 Italy 2,366 2,546 2,753 3,043 2,814 3,082 3,514 3,858 Netherlands 4,388 4,897 5,847 6,731 4,117 4,577 5,209 5,753 Belgium 4,538 5,067 6,059 6,911 4,198 4,602 5,296 5,814 Luxembourg 5,512 5,191 6,011 6,826 5,364 4,941 5,370 5,883 United Kingdom 2,872 3,275 3,515 3,832 3,508 3,954 4,475 4,905 Irish Republic 1,862 2,092 2,286 2,578 2,311 2,588 2,943 3,330 Denmark 5,296 5,984 7,258 7,918 4,437 5,017 5,769 6,345 United States 5,565 5,761 7,045 7,593 5,798 6,377 7 295 8,069 Japan 3,535 3,630 4,476 (5,356)(†) 3,665 4,152 4,854 5,426 (*)European units of account. (†) Estimated by SOEC Source: EEC countries—National Accounts ESA Aggregates 1960–77 USA and Japan (a) in EUA—as for EEC countries (b) in purchasing power standards—United Nations industrial comparisons project estimates adjusted and extrapolated by CSO
§ Mr. Knoxasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each member State of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT AT CONSTANT MARKET PRICES ANNUAL PERCENTAGE GROWTH RATES 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 Canada* + 3.6 + 1.3 + 5.5 + 2.7 + 3.4 United States* -1.4 -1.3 + 5.7 +4.9 +4.0 Japan* -0.6 +1.4 + 6.5 + 5.4 + 5.6 Australia + 3.0 + 1.9 + 3.4 +2.4 +2.7 New Zealand +4.0 +1.7 +0.1 -3.0 n.a. Austria +4.3 -1.5 + 6.2 + 3.7 n.a. Belgium +4.7 -2.1 +5.7 +1.3 n.a. Denmark +0.6 -1.2 +6.3 +1.8 n.a. Finland +4.3 +0.9 +0.3 +0.4 +1.2 France +2.8 +0.3 +4.6 +3.0 +3.3 Germany* +0.4 -1.9 +5.1 +2.6 +3.4 Greece -3.6 +6.1 +6.2 +3.5 +6.2 Iceland* +3.3 -2.1 +2.4 +4.8 +4.1 Ireland +2.1 +1.2 +2.9 +5.5 n.a. Italy +4.2 +5.2 +5.9 +2.0 +2.6 Luxembourg +4.2 -9.5 +2.2 +1.3 n.a. Netherlands* +3.6 -1.8 +4.8 +2.5 +2.2 Norway +5.2 +4.2 +5.8 +4.1 n.a. Portugal +1.1 -4.3 +6.2 +5.7 n.a. Spain +5.3 +0.7 +2.1 +2.4 n.a. Sweden +4.1 +0.7 +1.2 -2.3 +2.8 Turkey* +7.4 +8.0 +7.7 +4.0 +3.0 United Kingdom -1.6 -1.7 +3.5 +1.4 +3.5 Yugoslavia n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. Notes: n.a.=Not available. * Gross national product at constant market prices. Sources: United Kingdom—latest national accounts estimates. Other countries—IMF International Financial Statistics (July 1979).