§ Mr. George Gardinerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table, in descending order of magnitude, of the income per head of population, as measured in terms of gross national product at market prices expressed in £ sterling, for the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, France, Italy, West Germany and Japan.
§ Mr. Denzil DaviesFollowing is the information:
Gross national product at market prices in 1976 per head of population £ United States 3,660 France 2,860 West Germany 2,760 Japan 2,310 United Kingdom 2,200 Italy 1,610 Sources: Derived from National Accounts ESA Aggregates 1960–1976. The figures have been converted from national currencies to £ sterling on the basis of purchasing power parities, extrapolated to 1976 from the comparisons made by the United Nations of relative prices of goods and services in 1970.
The use of market or official exchange rates for conversion can give very misleading results because these rates do not reflect the relative domestic purchasing power of different currencies. Estimates of purchasing power parities for Canada are not available.