61. Mr. Love ridgeasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will publish figures showing the extent of United Kingdom direct investment overseas since 1945, both public and private, and also estimates of how much the capital values of this investment have grown overseas, together with estimates of the amounts which have been returned to the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. NobleInformation available has been published as follows. Figures for direct overseas investment and for dividend remittances to the United Kingdom by overseas subsidiaries and associates, in both cases excluding oil companies, for 1958–66 are shown in United Kingdom Balance of Payments, 1968—the "Pink Book"—and for 1967–71 in Business Monitor M4, Overseas Transactions, April, 1972. The book value of net assets of direct overseas investments—excluding oil, banking and insurance companies—at the end of the years 1960 and 1961 is shown in the Board of Trade Journal, 26th January, 1968, and for 1962–68 in the issue of 23rd September, 1970. Provisional figures for the value of net assets at the end of 1969, 1970 and 1971 are £6,100 million, £6,415 million and £6,885 million respectively. The latter figure is nearly 2⅓ times the estimated level at the end of 1960.