Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on the Gross Domestic Product – 24 July 1987

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on the Gross Domestic Product on 24th July 1987.

Mr. Austin Mitchell Asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the average annual rate of growth in gross domestic product in the next five years, excluding the extraction of oil and gas; and what was the average rate reached in the decade to the end of 1973.

Mr. Major Table 2.3 in the 1987 “Financial Statement and Budget Report” shows growth assumptions for real GDP excluding extraction of oil and gas. These figures are consistent with the FSBR forecast to mid-1988 and the MTFS path for money GDP to 1990-91. The average annual increase in the output-based measure of GDP excluding oil and gas extraction in the decade to the end of 1973 was 2.7 per cent.

Mr. Austin Mitchell Asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the average annual percentage increase in gross domestic product between 1979 and 1986, excluding the extraction of oil and gas, and the annual average in the decade to the end of 1973; and if he will provide comparable information available to him of figures for the United States, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France and Italy.

Mr. Major I refer the hon. Member to the information on the United Kingdom’s gross domestic product obtainable from the Central Statistical Office’s computer database (available from the House of Commons Library).

Comparable data excluding oil and gas extraction are not available for the other countries specified. Comparable data on total gross domestic product (including oil and gas extraction) are shown in the “Annual National Accounts, Volume One” (1987) published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.