asked the Secretary of State for Trade what has been the level, respectively, of cash and Government securities and of current liabilities held by manufacturing firms for each year since 1945; and what has therefore been their liquidity ratio for each of these years.
The information requested is not available for all manufacturing businesses. Certain information is available from 1948 onwards for the large manufacturing companies listed on the Stock Exchange covered by the Department of Industry's regular analysis of company accounts which is published in Business Monitor M3. This is given in the table below. The ratio of cash and Government securities to current liabilities is available only from 1964 and may be too low because Government securities are not necessarily identified in company accounts. A rather wider definition of the liquidity ratio—immediate assets and investments to current liabilities—is, however, available from 1948 and is given also in the table.
| LARGE LISTED MANUFACTURING COMPANIES | |||||||||
Number of companies
| Cash, etc. and identified Government securities*
| Other listed and unlisted investments
| Trade and other debtors
| Total immediate assets and investments†
| Current liabilities‡
| Liquidity ratio
| |||
(1)
| (2)
| (3)
| (4)
| (5)
| (4)÷(5)
| (1)÷(5)
| |||
£m.
| £m.
| £m.
| £m.
| £m.
| £m.
| per cent.
| |||
| 1959 | … | 1,991 | 1,700 | 2,570 | 4,270 | 3,224 | 132·4 | ||
| 1960§ | … | 1,912 | 1,664 | 2,882 | 4,546 | 3,767 | 120·7 | ||
| 1,688 | 1,663 | 2,797 | 4,460 | 3,613 | 123·4 | ||||
| 1961 | … | 1,632 | 1,660 | 2,993 | 4,653 | 3,953 | 117·7 | ||
| 1962 | … | 1,577 | 1,694 | 3,129 | 4,824 | 4,080 | 118·2 | ||
| 1963 | … | 1,502 | 1,842 | 3,473 | 5,315 | 4,463 | 119·1 | ||
| 1964§ | … | 1,437 | 1,756 | 3,977 | 5,734 | 4,974 | 115·3 | ||
| 1,638 | 860 | 928 | 4,043 | 5,831 | 5,079 | 114·8 | 16·9 | ||
| 1965 | … | 1,569 | 751 | 939 | 4,485 | 6,174 | 5,645 | 109·4 | 13·3 |
| 1966 | … | 1,508 | 755 | 1,007 | 4,912 | 6,674 | 6,206 | 107·6 | 12·2 |
| 1967 | … | 1,421 | 897 | 1,182 | 5,235 | 7,314 | 6,387 | 114·5 | 14·0 |
| 1968 | … | 1,310 | 977 | 1,346 | 5,905 | 8,228 | 7,789 | 105·6 | 12·5 |
| 1969§ | … | 1,218 | 990 | 1,297 | 6,685 | 8,972 | 9,381 | 95·6 | 10·6 |
| 910 | 939 | 1,322 | 6,199 | 8,461 | 8,702 | 97·2 | 10·8 | ||
| 1970 | … | 874 | 908 | 1,376 | 6,759 | 9,043 | 9,833 | 92·0 | 9·2 |
| 1971 | … | 834 | 1,179 | 1,613 | 6,538 | 9,329 | 9,793 | 95·3 | 12·0 |
| 1972 | … | 786 | 1,808 | 1,879 | 7,276 | 10,963 | 10,821 | 101·3 | 16·7 |
| 1973 | … | 762 | 2,319 | 2,237 | 9,053 | 13,608 | 14,262 | 95·4 | 16·3 |
| 1973ü | … | 609 | 1,767 | 1,808 | 7,379 | 10,954 | 11,266 | 97·2 | 15·7 |
| 1974 (provisional)| | 600 | 1,478 | 1,725 | 8,466 | 11,669 | 13,869 | 84·1 | 10·7 | |
* Cash, etc.; Government securities, tax reserve certificates (tax deposit accounts from 1973) and Treasury Bills, where separately distinguished in company accounts. Prior to 1964 holdings of Government securities were not separately distinguished. | |||||||||
| † Current assets less stocks and work in progress. | |||||||||
| ‡ Bank overdrafts and loans, other short-term loans, creditors, dividends and interest due and current taxation due. From 1968 onwards all corporation tax is classed as a current liability irrespective of the date on which it is paid. Prior to 1968 only corporation tax and income tax payable in the current fiscal year is treated as a current liability. | |||||||||
| § The population of companies covered by the analysis was revised in 1960, 1964 and 1969 and so two sets of figures are given for these years. | |||||||||
| | 1974 figures are provisional being based only on accounts received up to 30th September 1975: figures for 1973 comparable with these are therefore also given. | |||||||||
Source: Department of Industry analysis of the accounts of large listed manufacturing companies operating mainly in the United Kingdom. | |||||||||