§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish the retail prices index for(a) goods other than food, fuel and alcoholic drink and (b) services for each year since 1987 and for each month since August 1992; and what were the increases for the same periods in (i) earnings of manual workers in manufacturing industry, (ii) earnings of white-collar workers in the private sector and (iii) producer prices for manufacturing.
§ Mr. NelsonThe information for(a) and (b) is not available in the form requested and can only be produced at disproportionate cost.
The following table gives average gross weekly earnings of full time employees on adult rates with pay not affected by absence for April each year.
Manual employees in manufacturing Non-manuals in private sector April Mean (£) Increase over 12 months (per cent.) Mean (£) Increase over 12 months (per cent.) 1986 169.6 — 203.9 — 1987 181.1 6.8 222.8 8.7 1988 195.5 8.0 247.6 11.0 1989 212.1 8.5 272.3 9.8 1990 231.1 9.0 300.2 10.2 1991 241.9 4.3 318.2 7.6 1992 258.9 7.0 337.9 6.2 Source: New Earnings Survey.
The data for producer prices (home sales) for all manufacturing industries are as shown:
Index (1985 = 100) Percentage increase on year earlier 1987 108.3 3.8 1988 113.2 4.5 1989 119.0 5.1 1990 126.0 5.9 1991 133.0 5.6 1992 138.0 3.8 August 1992 138.5 3.4 September 1992 138.6 3.4 October 1992 138.7 3.3 November 1992 139.2 3.3 December 1992 139.5 3.5 January 1993 140.7 3.6 February 1993 141.4 3.7 March 1993 1 142.4 1 3.7 April 1993 1 143.0 1 3.8 1 Provisional.