§ 107. Mr. Spearmanasked the President of the Board of Trade what is now the export target for 1949 at which the Government are aiming.
§ Mr. BottomleyThe House will recall that on 17th September when my right hon. Friend referred during the Debate on the Address to the new export targets for the end of 1949, he expected that the overall target would be of the order of 160 per cent. of the 1938 volume. On 25th October he announced that the new target for the end of 1949 is 155 per cent. The sum of the targets for the principal groups of export industries is at present almost 160 per cent., but making allowance for the possibility that shortfalls in some industries may not be balanced by surpluses in others, the overall target has been rounded off to 155 per cent. In this, we have followed the procedure of the 1948 Economic Survey. Discussions are proceeding with individual industries and it may be necessary to make a number of adjustments before the full list of individual targets is published at the end of this year.