§ Mr. Forresterasked the President of the Board of Trade what was the hire-purchase debt per head of the population in June, 1964, 1965 and 1966, for Great Britain; and what information he has, from international sources, about the figures for other Western countries.
§ Mr. DarlingThe hire-purchase and other instalment credit debt per head of
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Country Title of Statistic on which figure is based Source Debt per head at June, 1965 (or nearest available date) U.S.A. … … Consumer Instalment Credit Federal Reserve Bulletin £117 4 0 Canada … … Consumer Debt (Finance Houses and Retail Dealers) O.E.C.D. Main Economic Indicators £87 19 0 France … … Consumer Debt (all institutions) do. £6 4 0 Norway … … Consumer Debt do. £10 18 0 Austria … … Outstanding Instalment Credit (Total all sources) Eurofinas Newsletter July, 1965 £4 19 0 Belgium … … do. do. £15 0 0 W. Germany … … do. do. £13 19 0 Netherlands … … do. do. £5 4 0 the population in Great Britain owed to finance houses and retailers (other than clothing and footwear shops and a few other kinds of business) was as follows:
£ s d June, 1964 … … 22 11 0 June, 1965 … … 25 7 0 June, 1966 … … 25 10 0 Figures are set out in the table below for certain other countries. Because of differences in definition, coverage and methods of compilation these figures are not on a comparable basis.