§ 18. Mr. Leslie Huckfieldasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will make a statement about the increase in gross national product from 1st January 1974 to the latest convenient date; and how this compares with similar periods in the last three years.
§ Mr. HealeyThe latest estimates of gross domestic and gross national product, in the White Paper published today, relate to the fourth quarter of 1973; preliminary information on the first quarter of 1974 will not be published until the middle of May. However, it is already clear that as a consequence of three-day working, gross domestic product in the first quarter of 1974 is likely to show a substantial fall compared to the fourth quarter of 1973 which was itself adversely affected by the mining dispute.