§ Mr. Hamlingasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will publish in the Official Report statistics showing percentage increases by value and volume of imports of manufactured consumer goods and manufactured capital goods, respectively, for each year since 1958.
§ Mr. DarlingThe information so far as it is available is given in the following table. Volume estimates are not calculated for the separate categories of consumer goods and capital goods. Percentage changes in value are not available before 1959.
IMPORTS OF MANUFACTURED CONSUMER AND CAPITAL GOODS(a) Percentage change in value on previous year Consumer Goods(b) Mainly Capital Goods(c) 1959 +54 +13 1960 +35 +38 1961 -3 +13 1962 +9 +8 1963 +23 +2 1964 +23 +31 1965 -11 +14 1966 +11 +13 (a) Only goods in Sections 7 and 8 (Finished Manufactures) of the Trade Accounts are included. Some manufactured consumer and capital goods are classified to other Sections. The allocation between consumer goods and capital goods is to some extent arbitrary as some imports, e.g. motor cars, may be considered as appropriate to either category. Such manufactures have been allocated to one of the two groups according to whether most of the imports in a particular trade account heading were thought to be purchased by individuals for personal use or by businesses as part of their capital equipment. (b) Includes cars and motor cycles, other durable goods, works of art, clothing and footwear and other non-durable consumer goods. (c) Includes machinery, road vehicles other than cars and motor cycles, aircraft, rail vehicles, ships and boats, instruments and other finished manufactures.