§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Trade if he will circulate in the Official Report a table showing the estimated return on sales in manufacturing industry in each year since 1970; whether he has any information showing that the return on exports was higher in any of these years than the return on home sales; by how much the real exchange rate has risen since November 1976; and how this compares with the estimated rate of return on exports at the present time.
§ Mr. ParkinsonAnnual figures, up to 1977, of the return on sales can be found in table 11 (listed companies) and table 12 (unlisted companies) of the eleventh issue of Business Monitor MA3 "Company finance". More recent information and figures of the return on exports are not available.
There are various measures of competitiveness and these are published in the monthly review of external trade statistics.