§ 41. Mr. Sparksasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will give a list of those household commodities the retail prices of which have fallen, at the nearest convenient date, as compared with 1947; and by how much such prices have declined.
§ Mr. J. EdwardsComplete records of retail prices are not available. Prices of certain representative goods are collected in order to measure, by means of index numbers, changes in the retail prices of certain groups of goods. None of the group index numbers published by the Ministry of Labour and National Service shows a fall compared with June, 1947, when the index numbers were commenced, but there have been indications of lower prices in certain household and other nonfood items included in the groups.