§ Lord Pearson of Rannochasked Her Majesty's Government:
For the period 1993–1998 inclusive, what was the annual average compound rate of growth of British current account credits (goods, services and investment income) in respect of—
- (a) the rest of the European Union;
- (b) the NAFTA countries; and
- (c) the other Commonwealth countries, excluding Canada. [HL4063]
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics who has been asked to reply.
Letter to Lord Pearson of Rannoch from the Director of the Office for National Statistics, Dr. T Holt, dated 14 September 1999.
62WAAs Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question on the compound growth of British current account credits.
The data requested are shown in the attached table. The ONS does not publish separate geographic data for the sum of trade in goods, trade in services and income credits (i.e. current account less current transfers credits). Data for the Commonwealth are not available, although figures for the larger Commonwealth countries are published. The data used to derive the growth rates will be published in the 1999 Pink Book, which will be published on 27 August and will be available in the House of Lords Library. The data are currently available from the ONS DataBank. I have enclosed a copy of the tables.
Compound Growth in UK Current Account Credits, 1993–1998 Current account less current transfers credits European Union1 7.5 NAFTA2 8.1 Selected Commonwealth countries3 1.9 World Total 6.8 SourceOffice for National Statistics
1The definition of the EU includes EU institutions as defined by EUROSTAT.
2NAFTA includes United States of America, Canada and Mexico as defined by EUROSTAT.
3Commonwealth countries used as follows—the list was kept consistent to allow comparisons over time; Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.