§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer by how much consumer spending has increased, in real terms, in each quarter since 1997. [146129]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Mike Hughes to Mr. Stephen O'Brien dated 5 January 2004:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question on the amount by which consumer spending has increased, in real terms, in each quarter since 1997 [146129]. I am replying in his absence.
Consumer spending is described as "household final consumption expenditure" in the UK National Accounts (series identifier ABJR). The following table shows the seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter growth of this series in volume.
Household final consumption expenditure1: quarter-on-quarter growth (%) in volume terms, 1997–2003—United Kingdom 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Quarter 1 0.4 1.0 1.7 2.0 1.3 0.1 -0.2 Quarter 2 1.6 0.9 1.0 0.2 0.4 1.1 0.8 Quarter 3 0.1 0.9 0.7 0.6 1.6 0.5 0.9 Quarter 4 1.4 0.8 1.8 0.0 1.4 1.0 1 Seasonally adjusted