§ Mr. Knoxasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will ask the OECD annually to publish, for the purposes of comparison, a table showing the Government budget deficits or surpluses of the OECD countries as a percentage of gross national product.
§ Mr. DellNo. Given the wide differences between countries in the range of activities financed by Government and the definition of budget deficits or surpluses, it would require more effort to produce even reasonably comparable figures for all the OECD countries than the results would justify.
§ Mr. Knoxasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for all OECD countries the percentage of gross national product that is used for investment, after allowance is made for capital depreciation, for each of the years since 1945;
(2) if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for all OECD 71W countries the percentage of gross national product that is used for investment for each year since 1945.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonThese Questions could be answered only at the cost of disproportionate time and effort. The information from which the requested tables could be obtained is published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in the series of books "National Accounts of OECD Countries", but the earliest year covered is 1950, in the 1950–1968 volume.