§ Mr. John Pageasked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity on what date she will publish the next monthly figures for the General Index of Retail Prices; and on what date the figures will be available in her Department.
§ Mrs. Castle:The next General Index of Retail Prices figures will relate to Tuesday, 19th May. The figures are published as soon as the calculations are completed. In recent years this process has taken between four and five weeks and it is dependent on the time taken to collect the necessary information both directly by my Department and by retailers and others. It is not therefore possible to forecast the date of publication of the May figures but they will be published as soon as they are available.