§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table showing the average base interest rates for each quarter of the last even years in the United Kingdom, together with corresponding figures for West Germany, Holland, Austria and Switzerland for the same period.
§ Mr. Ian StewartThe information requested for the United Kingdom is set out in the table. I regret that comparable data for base rates are not available for the other countries.
United Kingdom Base Rates1 from the first quarter of 1980 (in per cent.) Year 1980 Q1 17 Q2 17 Q3 16 Q4 15 ¼ 1981 Q1 13½ Q2 12 Q3 12¼ Q4 15¼ 1982 Q1 13 ¾ Q2 12 ¾ Q3 11¾ Q4 9¾ 1983 Ql 10¾ Q2 10 Q3 9½ Q4 9 1984 Ql 9 Q2 9 Q3 11 Q4 10 1985 Ql 13 Q2 12¾ Q3 11¾ Q4 11½ 1986 Ql 12¼ Q2 10½ Q3 10 Q4 10¾ 1 Figures are quarterly averages. SourceCSO, "Financial Statistics".