§ 75. Mr. Sparksasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the figure of national income for the year 1958; and by how much would this figure have increased, compared to the year 1951, if the average increase of industrial production in the years 1945 to 1951 had been maintained in the years 1952 to 1958.
Mr. AmoryThe gross national product, which is the national income reckoned before deduction of depreciation, is estimated at £20,114 million for 1958. It is not possible to estimate what its value would have been in the conditions postulated by the hon. Member, as this would require assumptions about the proportion of the national income derived from industrial production, and about the relation between money income and real output, in hypothetical conditions; and such assumptions could only be arbitrary.