Lord Pattenasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 5 February (WA 116) and the letter from the National Statistician, why the average annual percentage growth rate from 1997 to 2002 has dropped below trend at 1.6 per cent when the average annual percentage growth rate in the whole country output per job from 1961 to 2002 was 2.1 per cent. [HL1354]
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyProductivity growth is subject to cyclical variation, and so comparisons of productivity performance over time are better made over complete economic cycles rather than arbitrary time periods. The 2003 Pre-Budget Report (Cm 6042, table A2) judged that trend growth in output per hour worked over the last economic cycle between 1997H1 and 2001Q3 was 2.44 per cent a year. This compares with a figure of 2.05 per cent over the previous cycle (1986Q2 to 1997H1).