To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the annual rate of growth of manufacturing output over the last two years. In the two years ending in the three months to April, manufacturing output grew at an average annual rate of 6.2 per cent. To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his latest estimate of the growth of manufacturing productivity in the United Kingdom since 1979 and in the previous two decades. Between 1979 and the three months to April 1989, output per head in United Kingdom manufacturing industry grew at an annual average growth rate of 4.2 per cent, significantly higher than the 1.6 per cent. To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the effect of the current level of interest rates on manufacturing firms employing less than 200 employees.
Inflation is the greatest threat to the prosperity of all manufacturing firms.
They will therefore benefit greatly from the Government's determination to keep interest rates as high as necessary for as long as necessary as part of its firm anti-inflationary policy. The latest CBI quarterly trends survey published in April confirms this buoyant outlook. To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the annual rate of growth of manufacturing output over the last two years. Manufacturing productivity, as measured by output per person employed, was 51 per cent. Over the same period in the United States productivity increased by 37 per cent.