§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Trade if he will circulate in the Official Report a table showing the weights used for the wholesale price index to calculate the index of import price competitiveness and the index of the relative profitability of exports.
§ Mr. ParkinsonThe wholesale price index series used in the compilation of these two indices of competitiveness are each derived by weighting together some 600 component wholesale price indices. These component indices correspond, as far as possible, with the sample information used to compile the import and export unit value indices. The weights used are identical to those used to compute these unit value series—that is, import weights for import price competitiveness20W and export weights for relative profitability—and are proportional to the values of trade in the base year, 1975. These values, in aggregate form, are given in the B and C tables in the Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics. Further information on the method of compilation of the two indices of competitiveness may be found in the May 1980 issue of Economic Trends.