§ Mr. Lewisasked the Minister of Labour whether he will publish in HANSARD a table of figures giving the rise and fall in the price of food for each of the months from January, 1951, until December, 1951, compared with January, 1958, until the latest convenient stated 84W monthly date, taking as the basis January, 1951, being equal to 100.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodThe following table shows separate monthly figures for 1951 and 1958 taking January in each of these two years as equal to 100, instead of January, 1951, as equal to 100 throughout. Following a recommendation of my Cost of Living Advisory Committee, I am not prepared to link the food group index back as far as January, 1951, because of material changes introduced in January, 1952, in the interim index of retail prices.
AVERAGE LEVEL OF RETAIL PRICES* OF FOOD IN EACH MONTH OF 1951 AND 1958 TAKING JANUARY IN EACH YEAR AS 100 — 1951 1958 January … 100 100 February … 100 99 March … 101 100 April … 103 103 May … 107 103 June … 107 103 July … 110 101 August … 110 101 September … 111 100 October … 113 103 November … 113 December … 114 * The price indicators and their weights are not the same in the two years and therefore an exact comparison of price trends cannot be made. The prices normally relate to the Tuesday nearest to the fifteenth of the month.