§ Mr. Pardoeasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate what 533W the public sector borrowing requirement would be in 1978–79 if the average level of unemployment for the year were 3 per cent.
§ Mr. Joel BarnettI regret that I cannot provide this figure. As was explained in a recent article inEconomic Progress Report, such an estimate would be subject to a wide margin of error and so would be wholly unreliable. The adjustment requested to the forecast of the actual public sector borrowing requirement would require a number of arbitrary assumptions about the way in which the standardised level of activity was secured, and would depend on assumptions about relationships in the economy which are in doubt, notably that between output and employment.