Commodities (Price Changes)

HC Deb 29 November 1951 vol 494 cc159-60W

36. Mr. Osborne

asked the President of the Board of Trade what has been the average rise in the prices of dollar commodities such as cereals, cotton, tobacco, oil seeds, copper, lead and zinc, since April, 1951.

Mr. P. Thorneycroft

Price changes between April, 1951, and last week of representative grades of the dollar commodities mentioned, for which reliable price quotations are available, were as follows:—

					Increases per cent.
Wheat	…	…	…	…	8
Maize	…	…	…	…	4
Copper	…	…	…	…	12
Lead	…	…	…	…	12
Zinc	…	…	…	…	11
					Decrease per cent.
Cotton	…	…	…	…	6

37. Mr. Osborne

asked the President of the Board of Trade what has been the average fall in the prices of sterling products such as wool, cocoa, rubber, tinand hard fibres since they touched peak prices in April, 1951.

Mr. P. Thorneycroft

Though in several cases the peak price was reached earlier than April, 1951, the reductions in price from then up to last week, for representative grades were as follows:

			Per cent
Crossbred wool	…	…	57
Merino wool	…	…	49
Cocoa	…	…	25
Rubber	…	…	28
Tin	…	…	18
Jute	…	…	27
Sisal	…	…	14