§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the change in competitiveness from, respectively, the fourth quarter of 1976 and from May 1979 to date of British manufacturing industry against (a) West Germany, (b) Japan, (c) France and (d) the United States of America and his estimate in each case of the proportion of this change due to the exchange rate.
§ Mr. Bruce-GardyneThe information requested is provided in the following table. For completeness the change in relative unit labour costs before allowing for exchange rate movements are also shown.
Relative unit labour costs unadjusted for exchange rate movements Exchange rate Per cent. changes Relative unit labour costs adjusted for exchange rate movement UK/W. Germany 1976 Q4-1982 Q2 +53 + 6 +63
10W
All-industries' index of industrial production 1975 = 100, seasonally adjusted Three month moving averages Three months ending 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 January 106.3 103.2 99.6 105.5 107.0 109.3 113.0 100.8 100.4 February 103.9 102.9 99.9 106.0 107.9 110.1 111.7 100.5 100.4 March 102.7 102.5 100.4 106.3 107.9 110.5 110.4 100.2 100.7 April 104.3 101.4 101.0 105.9 109.0 113.5 108.9 100.2 101.0 May 106.3 100.1 101.8 106.5 109.8 114.7 108.0 99.9 101.2
Relative unit labour costs unadjusted for exchange rate movements Exchange rate Per cent. changes Relative unit labour costs adjusted for exchange rate movements 1979 Q2–1982 Q2 +26 + 7 +35 UK/Japan 1976 Q4–1982 Q2 +80 -10 +61 1979 Q2–198 Q2 +35 -4 +29 UK/France 1976 Q4–1982 Q2 +13 +36 +53 1976 Q2–1982 Q2 + 4 +23 +28 UK/USA 1976 Q4–1982 Q2 +19 + 8 +28 1979 Q2–1982 Q2 + 9 -15 -7 Note 1:
A rise in relative unit labour costs implies a loss of cost competitiveness.
Note 2:
When expressed as ratios rather than percentage changes as requested the changes in columns 1 and 2 multiply together to give column 3.