§ Mr. Morleyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give an estimate of how far the standard of living of the British people would be lowered if food and raw materials were purchased from the dollar areas only to the extent to which they could be paid for by our exports, both visible and invisible, to those areas.
§ Sir S. Cripps:The most recent figures available are those for the year ending 10W June 30th, 1949. The United Kingdom deficit on current account with the dollar area for that year was:
£ million* Imports (f.o.b.) 391 Exports and re-exports (f.o.b.) 185 Deficit on visible trade 206 Net deficit on invisibles 44 Total deficit on current account 250 *At 4.03 dollars to the £. It is not possible to give an estimate of what would have been the effects on the standard of living in the United Kingdom in 1948–49 of reducing imports from the dollar area by £250 million. The effect that would be involved can however be judged from the following figures of the percentages (by value) of United Kingdom imports which came from the dollar area in the year ended 30th June, 1949:
COMMODITY CATEGORIES per cent. Food and Feedingstuffs 17 Raw Materials 21 Other Imports (tobacco, petroleum machinery, etc.) 32 INDIVIDUAL COMMODITIES per cent. Wheat and Flour 74 Sugar 42 Cotton 27 Timber 22 Non-ferrous Metals 46 Tobacco 42 Petroleum 38