§ Mr. Gouldasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for the six months ended September 1983 the amount of imports from and exports to (a) the European Community and (b) the rest of the world of (i) manufactures less precious stones and (ii) goods less crude oil and precious stones.
§ Mr. ChannonThe information is as follows:
§ Mr. ChannonThe public expenditure cost of interest support for exports in the last financial year was £538.7 million—£243.4 million in respect of exports financed in sterling, and £295.3 million in respect of those financed in foreign currencies.
517WIn the first six months of the current financial year the cost is provisionally put at £169 million—£103 million for sterling and £66 million for foreign currency financed exports. Recent agreements under the international arrangements concerning guidelines for officially supported export credits — the consensus — and the fall in domestic interest rates, suggest this downward trend in expenditure should continue if the present course of interest rates is maintained.