HC Deb 14 July 1980 vol 988 cc387-9W
Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Secretary of State for Trade (I) whether, further to his reply dated 18 June concerning relative export prices, he will publish in the Official Report such

Mr. Parkinson

The latest year for which information for all the EFTA countries is readily available is 1978. Figures for that year and the earlier years are as follows:

and Denmark, respectively, the United Kingdom percentage of imports of (a) all goods and (b) manufactures in 1970, 1973 and 1979.

Mr. Parkinson

The available information is as follows:

information as is available to him concerning export prices and inflation rates for each of the countries concerned, together with an estimate of the number of man-minutes and cost of staff which would be involved in extrapolating the figures to give the answer originally requested;

(2) whether, further to his reply dated 18 June concerning relative export prices, he will publish such estimates as he can provide without disproportionate cost commencing with the current quarter and the most important manufacturing countries.

Mr. Parkinson

Information on export prices is given in table F2 of theMonthly Review of External Trade Statistics, and on inflation rates—as measured by consumer prices—monthly in the IMF's International Financial Statistics.

On the final part of the first question, as stated in the reply to the previous question, the provision of relative export prices for the other countries on the same basis as those yin the review for the United Kingdom could be undertaken only at disproportionate cost. This cost related largely to the work which would be involved in deriving the weights needed to compile the relative export prices for each of the countries requested; a different set of such weights is needed for each country's calculations. Additionally, since the series is chain-linked on 1975, weights would be required for more than one year. The question of cost does not, therefore, relate to the matter of extrapolating figures. I should, in any case, prefer to leave any extrapolations to the hon. Member.

On the second question, I am unwilling to commit my Department's resources to preparing alternative series of relative export prices for other countries based on the methodology used in the monthly review for the United Kingdom; as stated in my previous reply, similar information is already published in the IMF's International Financial Statistics.