§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing over the last 20 years as at 31 March annually (a) the prevailing bank rate-minimum lending rate, (b) the real interest rate, and (c) comparable figures for (a) and (b) for West Germany, the United States of America and Japan.
§ Mr. Ian Stewart(a) Annual figures for central bank discount rates, the nearest equivalent to bank—minimum lending rate, are available in the IMF's "International Financial Statistics". The Bank of England ceased to announce a minimum lending rate in August 1981.
(b) A discussion of the problems involved in measuring real interest rates together with some estimates of pre—and post—tax short term real interest rates for the United Kingdom, the United States and West Germany appeared in the Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, December 1983. An equivalent set for Japan is not available.
Copies of both publications are available in the Library.