§ 30. Mr. Woolmerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects national output and the level of manufacturing output to start rising and the level of unemployment to start falling.
§ Mr. BrittanThere are a number of indications, not yet confirmed, that we may be close to the bottom of the388W present recession. The economic forecasts published with the Budget show a small rise in both total and manufacturing output between the first and second halves of 1981. The Government do not publish forecasts of unemployment, which in the past have been notoriously unreliable. The action taken in the Budget to continue the fight against inflation and to redress the imbalances in the economy is the only way of ensuring better job prospects in the longer term.