§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish a table showing for the last eight six-monthly periods for which figures are available, for each member state of the European Economic Community and for the European Economic Community as a whole, the index of producer prices, index of unit labour costs, index of import price competitiveness, increase in real unit labour costs and increase in non-wage labour costs.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThe available information on unit labour costs, estimated by the European Commission, relates to annual rather than six-monthly periods and is given in the following table. The indices of producer prices and of import price competitiveness are matters for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Comparable information on non-wage labour costs for European Community countries is only available from the triennial survey of labour costs, for which the latest results relate to 1981 and were published by Eurostat in 1984. More recent estimates for Great Britain were given in an article in the August 1984Employment Gazette. Copies of both of these publications are available in the Library.
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Changes in Unit Labour Costs, Whole Economy Percentage change over the previous year in Unit Labour costs (i) Consumer Prices (ii) 'Real' Unit Labour Costs (i) relative to (ii) Germany (FR) 1980 5.8 5.5 0.3 1981 4.3 5.9 -1.5 1982 3.5 5.3 -1.7 1983 0.1 2.9 -2.1 France 1980 13.3 13.6 -0.3 1981 13.4 13.4 0.0 1982 11.7 12.0 -0.3 1983 9.4 9.4 0.0 Italy 1980 18.6 21.2 -2.1 1981 22.7 19.5 2.7 1982 17.2 16.4 0.7 1983 14.9 14.7 0.2 Netherlands 1980 5.0 7.0 -1.9 1981 3.2 6.8 -3.4 1982 4.7 6.0 -1.2 1983 -0.1 2.8 -2.8 Belgium 1980 5.5 6.7 -1.1 1981 7.0 7.6 -0.6 1982 5.0 8.7 -3.4 1983 4.2 7.7 -3.2 Luxembourg 1980 7.2 6.3 0.8 1981 9.9 8.1 1.7 1982 7.7 9.3 -1.5 1983 8.9 8.7 0.2 United Kingdom 1980 20.6 18.0 2.2 1981 10.9 11.9 -0.9 1982 4.4 8.6 -3.9 1983 4.1 4.6 -0.5 Ireland 1980 18.0 18.2 -0.2 1981 15.0 20.4 -4.5 1982 13.2 17.2 -3.4 1983 9.1 10.2 -1.0 Denmark 1980 10.6 12.3 -1.5 1981 8.0 11.8 -3.4 1982 8.0 10.1 -1.9 1983 5.5 6.9 -1.3 Greece 1980 14.9 24.8 -7.9 1981 24.9 24.5 0.3 1982 24.3 20.9 2.8 1983 16.9 20.5 -3.0 European Community 1980 12.1 14.3 -1.9 1981 10.7 12.8 -1.9 1982 7.1 11.0 -3.5 1983 4.6 8.5 -3.6 Source:
(i) 'European Economy', Commission of the European Communities, March 1984.
(ii) 'Consumer Price Index', Eurostat, September 1984.