Public Expenditure

HC Deb 24 May 1976 vol 912 cc90-1W

Mr. Norman Lamont

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what total public expenditure per household and per head was in 1973–74 and will be in 1976–77

Mr. Joel Barnett

Following is the information:

	Public expenditure
	Per household	Per head of home population
	£	£
1973–74	1,779	609
1976–77 (estimated)	3,300	1,150

Mr. Lawson

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will provide figures for: (a) public expenditure on goods and services and (b) transfer payments including debt interest, expressed as a percentage of gross domestic product, in the financial year 1975–76 and in each of the 20 previous financial years.

Mr. Joel Barnett,

pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 20th May 1976; Vol. 911, c. 657], gave the following information:

Public expenditure on goods and services in 1975–76 is provisionally estimated as 35 per cent. of gross domestic product at factor cost. The corresponding figure for transfer payments is 24 per cent. Figures for the previous 20 years are shown in the following table. Financial year figures are not available before 1961–62.

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AS A PERCENTAGE OF GDP AT FACTOR COST
	Goods and services	Transfers (including loans and debt interest)
1955	26.8	15.0
1956	26.8	14.2
1957	26.7	14.1
1958	26.0	14.9
1959	26.3	15.0
1960	25.9	15.6
1961	26.5	16.1
1961–62	26.8	16.5
1962–63	27.0	16.2
1963–64	27.6	16.2
1964–65	27.8	15.9
1965–66	28.5	17.0
1966–67	30.3	17.1
1967–68	31.6	19.5
1968–69	30.5	20.1
1969–70	30.0	20.3
1970–71	31.3	19.7
1971–72	30.5	19.3
1972–73	30.1	20.1
1973–74	31.4	22.0
1974–75	33.9	24.1

Sources: Economic Trends Annual Supplement No. 1, 1975 pp. 8–10 and 113–14. Economic Trends, April 1976, pp. 54 and 76.