asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he obtains up-to-date information from overseas posts regarding the export prices charged by Great Britain's principal competitors for manufacturers, so as to facilitate the management of the £ sterling; and whether he can give an estimate on that basis of the comparative increases in export prices for manufacturers over the course of the current year.

Our main sources of information on manufactures export prices of our principal competitors are the UN and OECD secretariats. No up to date information is available for most competitor countries; but we estimate that United Kingdom manufactured exports have been 4 per cent. more price competitive in the third quarter than in the first quarter of this year.