§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will describe the method he has used to back his assertion in the Red Book, paragraph 3.47, that exporter's margins in the third quarter of this year had regained their pre-exchange rate mechanism.
§ Mr. NelsonThe measure of export profit margins used in paragraph 3.47 of the "Financial Statement and Budget Report" is the ratio of the manufacturing export price average value index to the Treasury's estimates of manufacturers' total unit costs.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the increase stated in his Budget speech for non-oil exports to EEC countries in the three months to August took account of the under-recording of exports to the EEC in 1993; and if he will publish for the most recent three months in each case the increase in the volume of exports to(a) the EEC and (b) non-EEC countries since 1992, together with the increase in United Kingdom manufacturing output.
§ Mr. NelsonI have no reason to believe that the growth of non-oil exports to other EC countries between the three months to August 1994 and the same three months in 1993 is either under or over-recorded.
Figures for exports to other EC countries and to non-EC countries and for manufacturing output are available on the Central Statistical Office database, which can be accessed through the House of Commons Library.