Trade Statistics (Hansard, 24 April 1991)

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he will publish a table showing the volume of manufactured exports, less erratics, each year since 1970, and for each quarter since 1 January 1986, relative to the increase in the volume of manufactured exports in Germany, France, Italy, the United States of America and Japan.

§ Mr. Sainsbury
A series showing the United Kingdom's volume of exports of manufactured goods, less erratics, is published in table B8 of the "Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics", which is held in the House of Commons Library. Comparable figures for other countries are not available.

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is his estimate of trade-weighted index of competitiveness of United Kingdom exports on 8 October 1990 relative to that of West Germany.

§ Mr. Sainsbury
Between 1985 and the second half of 1990 the United Kingdom's trade-weighted index of unit labour costs had increased by 5 per cent. compared with a 28 per cent. increase in Germany. Data for trade-weighted unit labour costs are calculated quarterly and are therefore not available for 8 October 1990.

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the base year used to get the trade-weighted average index of United Kingdom export competitiveness for manufacturers in the Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics; what is the corresponding International Monetary Fund figure; and whether the International Monetary Fund figure for the United Kindom is based on the weight for the United Kingdom trade with the other 15 countries or the weight of those countries globally.

§ Mr. Sainsbury
The base year used in the trade-weighted index of unit labour costs, as published in the "Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics" is 1985. This series is produced by the IMF and hence the base year for the IMF series is the same. The trade weights used to construct the United Kingdom's index of relative unit labour costs are based on the exports, in 1980, to the United Kingdom from the other 16 countries covered.