§ Mr. Ridleyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will estimate the rate of increase of earnings under the present pay limit, referred to in the first sentence of paragraph 1 on page 10 of the Financial Statement and Budget.
§ Mr. HealeyThe information at present available to me is consistent with an increase in earnings in single figures for the 12 months ending July 1977. I have 181W seen some higher estimates based on simple projections of the rate of increase so far. Annual rates derived from a six or seven months' total can be very misleading. At this time last year they would have suggested too high a figure for the 12 months ended July 1976.