§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the impact on the retail prices index of the price of foreign holidays; and if he will give the balance of payments on tourism each year since 1970, together with the change in the terms of trade for manufactures, based on the second half of 1973=100.
§ Mr. NelsonForeign package holidays were introduced into the retail prices index in February 1993. In 1994 this component comprised 29 parts per thousand of the all-items "basket" of goods and services. At November 1994, the latest date for which information is available, the 12-month percentage increase in the foreign holidays' index was 2.4 per cent.
Data on the balance between expenditure by overseas residents visiting the UK and expenditure by UK residents visiting abroad are published in the "Business Monitors", MA6 and MQ6, entitled "Overseas travel and tourism".
Terms of trade for manufactures can be derived from unit value indices, based on 1990=100, available from the CSO database which can be accessed through the Library of the House.