§ Lord Shore of Stepneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What were the surpluses and deficits on current account and what were the annual average unemployed percentages for the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Holland and Belgium in 1998 and in each year since 1990. [HL2237]
§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey:The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics who has been asked to reply.
Letter to Lord Shore of Stepney from the Director of the Qffice for National Statistics, Tim Holt, dated 7 May 1999.
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question on the current account and unemployment percentages of EU countries.
As regards the current account, the data requested are shown in the attached tables. Unfortunately, 1998 data for countries other than the United Kingdom are not
Table 1: Current Balance of Selected Countries, 1990–97 Billions of ECU (European Currency Unit) 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 United Kingdom -26.85 -12.20 -13.20 -14.04 -2.23 -4.35 -0.55 8.78 France -12.07 -5.41 3.38 7.80 4.39 8.26 16.15 34.79 Germany 39.95 -15.55 -16.18 -13.49 -16.40 -17.27 -10.86 -0.92 Italy -13.40 -19.13 -21.62 9.66 13.03 19.57 32.01 29.67 Netherlands 7.96 6.15 5.23 8.24 8.74 18.53 19.92 19.63 Belgium & Luxembourg1 2.78 3.88 5.12 9.94 10.32 11.05 11.11 12.02 1Data for Belgium are riot separately available.
Source
EUROSTAT
Table 2: United Kingdom Current Balance, 1990–98 Billions of pounds sterling 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 United Kingdom -19.51 -8.37 -10.08 -10.62 -1.46 -3.75 -0.60 6.30 1.47 Source
Office for National Statistics.
Table 3: ILO Unemployment Rates for Selected Countries for 1990–97—spring of each year, not seasonally adjusted Per cent. Belgium German). France Italy Netherlands United Kingdom 1990 7.3 4.9 9.4 9.8 7.7 6.8 1991 7.0 5.3 9.2 10.1 7.3 8.4 1992 6.7 6.3 10.2 9.4 5.6 9.7 1993 8.1 7.7 11.4 10.3 6.3 10.3 1994 9.6 8.7 12.7 11.3 7.2 9.6 1995 9.3 8.2 11.9 11.8 7.2 8.6 1996 9.5 8.8 12.4 12.2 6.4 8.2 1997 9.0 9.9 12.6 12.4 5.5 7.1 Source
Labour Force Survey, ONS and Eurostat.
130WAcurrently available. The United Kingdom data shown in Table 2 are the latest estimates and have been revised since the data shown in Table 1 were published.
The Labour Force Survey is the recognised source of internationally comparable information on unemployment in EU member states. This is defined on a consistent and internationally recognised basis set out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ILO definition of unemployment considers a person unemployed if he/she is (a) without a paid job; (b) available to start work within the next two weeks; and (c) has either looked for work in the last four weeks or is waiting to start a job already obtained. The information provided in the table below has been taken from this source.
The attached Table 3 shows the ILO unemployment rates for selected countries for the years 1990 to 1997. Rates for 1998 have not yet been published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. The rates refer to spring of each year and are not seasonally adjusted.
A line has been drawn between rates for 1991 and 1992. Several improvements to the survey were implemented in 1992, introducing a slight discontinuity in the series. Eurostat advise that since both series are based on ILO guidelines, the difference between the series should be minimal.