§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish in the Official Report the Treasury index of relative normal unit labour costs for each of the past four quarters.
§ Mr. LawsonI refer the hon. Member to my reply to him today giving the text of the letter I sent him on 29 August about the publication of indices of competitiveness.
The IMF has now revised the estimates of trend productivity growth it uses in calculating its indices of relative normal unit labour costs; revised figures for the United Kingdom for this series have been published in the November issues of International Financial Statistics, Economic Trends and the Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics. These revised figures are very close to those produced by the Treasury index.