§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the fall in the profitability of exports of manufactures since 1 January 1990 as a return on sales; and whether he will publish a table comparing the reduction in profitability with the increase in export unit values, the increase in producer input and output prices and the increase in consumer prices.
§ Mr. MellorInformation on the profit margins of manufactured exports is not available. Information on the relative profitability of manufactured exports and domestic sales, and on producers' input and output prices, is available on the CSO database, which can be accessed through the House of Commons Library.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish a table showing(a) the value of March output of the manufacturing sector, less food, drink and tobacco, calculated on the basis of note 1 of the notes to editors in CSO press notice CSO (91)51, dated 16 April, on producer prices, (b) the ratio of the input to the output, (c) the proportion of the input assumed to be imported and (d) the price index for the imported and the home-produced import components; and if he will provide corresponding figures for 1970, 1979 and 1985.
§ Mr. MellorThe information requested is either not available or not readily so for the periods given. Some information relating to parts(a) and (b) is available for 1984, the year on which the weights for the producer price indices are currently based. The value of sales of the manufacturing sector, less food, drink and tobacco, on a 513W net sector basis was about £60 billion. The value of inputs on a net sector basis to the manufacturing sector less food, drink and tobacco (excluding some imported semi-manufactured goods not covered by the incides) was around two fifths of the net output value.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish a table showing the actual figures, at the respective dates, which underlie the chart in CSO press notice CSO (91) 51 dated 16 April 1991, on producer prices together with the corresponding figures from January 1970 together with the IMF index of relative export unit values and the relative DTI export unit value for the United Kingdom relative to that of West Germany; and whether he will publish a corresponding table for manufacturing, less food, drink and tobacco.
§ Mr. MellorThe. figures underlying the chart in CSO press notice CSO (91) 51 are shown in annex B to that press notice for 1988 onwards. Comparable data are only available back to January 1974 and are published in the CSO database accessible through the House of Commons Library.
The DTI index of relative export values of manufactures is published in "Economic Trends", available in the House of Commons Library. The IMF indices of relative export values for the United Kingdom and Germany are given in the following table. (The definition of manufacturing used by the IMF excludes food, drink and tobacco).
Relative1export unit value index (1985=100) United Kingdom Federal Republic of Germany United Kingdom relative to FRG 1970 90.8 113.1 80.3 1971 91.8 115.7 79.3 1972 93.3 116.0 80.4 1973 86.0 125.6 68.5 1974 85.5 121.8 70.2 1975 86.9 119.7 72.6 1976 83.8 120.0 69.8 1977 88.8 121.9 72.8 1978 95.0 125.2 75.9 1979 100.2 122.3 81.9 1980 112.1 116.3 96.4 1981 110.0 104.6 105.2 1982 103.4 106.0 96.7 1983 100.6 107.0 94.0 1984 98.3 99.5 98.8 1985 100.0 100.0 100.0 1986 97.7 110.9 88.1 1987 101.5 116.0 87.5 1988 110.0 112.4 97.9 1989 104.0 111.6 93.2 1990 107.6 115.8 92.9 1The UVI of each country divided by a weighted average of the 1980 UVI's of 16 major competitors.