Balance of Payments

HC Deb 27 March 1991 vol 188 c410W

Mr. Ralph Howell

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list in descending order of balance of payment performance(a) agriculture as a whole, (b) agriculture minus cereals, (c) the cereal sector, (d) coal, (e)steel, (f)electrical, (g)chemical and (h)invisibles.

Mr. Mellor

The balance of payments surplus on invisibles for 1990 is currently estimated at £5.1 billion. Visible trade information is not available for specific commodities on a balance of payments basis: the following table shows 1990 crude trade balances (1) for the nearest classes of goods on an overseas trade statistics basis.

£ billion
SITC2		Crude Balance1
5	Chemicals	+2.3
67	Iron and steel	+0.4
04	Cereals and cereal preparations	+0.3
32	Coal, coke and briquettes	−0.5
716, 75–77	Electrical machinery	−3.3
	Agriculture3	−6.4
	Agriculture3 less cereals and cereal preparations	−6.1
1 Exports cif less imports fob.
2 Standard International Trade Classification (Rev. 3).
3 There is no generally accepted definition of agriculture in the SITC. The figures used cover food and live animals, feed, beverages and other agricultural products (SITC Sections 0, 1 and 4; Division 22 and parts of Divisions 21, 26, 29, 51, 53, 55 and 59).