§ Mr. Freudasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the expenditure on advertising index-linked savings certificates in each of the last four months; that were the relevant figures over the same months in each of the last five years; and if he will list the mean rate of inflation prevalent in respect of each of those six four-month periods.
§ Mr. LawsonThe information required is as follows: 121W
Advertising expenditure on Index-linked National Savings Certificates Month 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 £ £ £ £ £ £ September 18,873 10,585 37,547 11,915 35,709 85,260 October 19,923 20,538 39,300 28,823 45,748 57,738 November 1,161 17,511 16,289 24,458 46,044 593,549 December — 3,625 566 1,517 61,187 480,250 Total 39,957 52,259 93,702 66,713 188,688 1,216,797 The mean rate of inflation for each four-month period over the mean price level, as measured by the retail prices index (RPI), for the corresponding period in the previous year was as follows:
Mean RPI figure September to December Increase over previous year per cent. 1974 114.0 — 1975 143.3 25.3 1976 164.5 14.8 1977 187.0 13.7 1978 202.0 8.0 1979 236.5 17.1 1980 273.0 15.4