§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish the changes in(a) the real exchange rate, (b) the balance of trade in manufactures and (c) the rate of economic growth since 1964; and what assessment he has made of the extent of correlation between these indicators.
§ Mr. NelsonThere is no unambiguous definition of the real exchange rate. A variety of indicators is available. These are published in "Economic Trends", table 28. These, along with the balance of trade in manufacturers and GDP are also available on the CSO database, which can be accessed through the House of Commons Library. Some useful identifiers include:
- FLAA—relative export prices;
- FLAC—relative unit labour costs;
- BPJF—the manufactures balance;
- CAOP—GDP at factor costs.
Correlation coefficients, calculated from these data, are set out in table 1.
Table 1: Estimated Correlation Matrix of Variables (1964–91) FLAA BPJF CAOP FLAC FLAA 1.0000 — — — BPJF .21237 1.0000 — — CAOP -.17787 -.71785 1.0000 — FLAC .96217 .19706 -.23963 1.0000 Annual data for the competitiveness measures are not yet available for 1992 and 1993 on the CSO database.