§ Mr. Knoxasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each month since October 1974 (a) the Price Commission index, (b) the all-items index of retail prices and (c) the wholesale price index, and indicate for each of the indices the base on which the index has been calculated.
§ Mr. MaclennanI refer the hon. Member to the quarterly report of the Price Commission for the Price Commission's index, and to the Monthly Digest of Statistics published by the Central Statistical Office for both the retail prices index and the wholesale price index.
THREE-MONTHLY PERCENTAGE INCREASE EXPRESSED AT AN ANNUAL RATE 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 Price Commission index January — 27.0 18.8 16.1 7.4 February — 33.7 11.0 14.8 9.0 March — 29.6 12.9 18.8 7.3 April — 18.2 11.4 18.7 7.2 May — 10.2 9.1 17.4 4.5* June — 11.7 13.6 11.5 — July — 19.9 13.9 10.3 — August — 21.1 15.5 6.1 — September — 17.9 13.2 4.1 — October 10.3 12.2 20.0 4.4 — November 20.6 17.6 23.4 5.5 — December 25.9 20.7 23.1 7.7 — Retail price index ail items January — 25.9 16.0 21.8 6.6 February — 23.4 15.2 21.6 7.0 March — 26.4 12.2 19.9 7.4 April — 34.4 16.0 19.6 11.2 May — 53.1 15.2 18.6 11.1 June — 48.0 15.1 19.0 — July — 32.5 7.5 8.7 — August — 15.1 8.8 6.8 — September — 10.3 12.3 4.7 — October 13.4 12.1 19.7 5.6 — November 23.1 14.8 19.7 6.0 — December 24.2 18.1 19.7 5.9 — Wholesale price index outputs January — 29.6 16.8 28.5 9.3 February — 38.1 18.0 25.3 11.0 March — 39.6 14.9 25.0 11.1* April — 40.6 13.7 18.3 8.5* May — 37.6 15.3 20.0 7.7* June — 23.7 17.1 19.8 — July — 21.7 16.6 17.3 — August — 13.9 17.0 13.4 — September — 13.1 18.3 10.8 — October 24.8 11.5 19.9 8.1 — November 24.4 11.6 21.6 5.9 — December 24.8 14.2 20.7 6.2 — *Provisional.