§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what evidence he has of a causal connection between an increase in the money supply and an increase in prices; and if he will publish this in the Official Report.
§ Mr. Peter ReesOver the medium to long term there has been a relatively stable relationship between the growth of the principal monetary aggregates and the rate of inflation. I refer the hon. Member to "Economic Progress Report No. 123", published in July 1980.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why has he stopped including figures for the velocity of circulation of money in Economic Trends.
§ Mr. Ian StewartEconomy Trends contains a selection of the most useful statistical series for monitoring the state of the economy. When new series on private sector liquidity were introduced, it was decided that they should be included in Economic Trends. To avoid increasing the 9W size of the publication, other series were dropped, among them the velocity of circulation of money. This change took effect in April 1981. A full range of monetary statistics, including the velocity of circulation of money, is published each month in "Financial Statistics".
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether he will publish in the Official Report the figure for domestic credit expansion in the period from 31 March last to the latest possible date together with the figure for sterling M3;
(2) why he has stopped including figures for domestic credit expansion in Economic Trends.
§ Mr. Ian StewartI refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Dagenham (Mr. Gould) on 29 November 1983. —[Vol. 49, c. 463.] The change in sterling M3 since 31 March 1983 is given in table 11.2 of "Financial Statistics".