asked the Secretary of State for Industry what has been the level of profitability and the increase in productivity of (a) wool textiles, (b) clothing firms and (c) manufacturing industry as a whole in each year since 1970 in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Italy and Germany.
[pursuant to his reply, 29 November 1979, c. 741–2]: Estimates of productivity for the wool textile and clothing industries are readily available only for the United Kingdom. Changes from year to year are as follows:
Comparable figures for profitability in the wool textile and clothing industries and for manufacturing as a whole are not available.
Some international comparisons for manufacturing industry of net rates of
| TABLE 3 | ||||||||
Percentages
| ||||||||
1971
| 1972
| 1973
| 1974
| 1975
| 1976
| 1977
| ||
| United Kingdom | … | 9·3 | 9·3 | 8·1 | 2·8 | 2·1 | 2·5 | 3·9 |
| Germany | … | 15·6 | 13·4 | 12·9 | 12·8 | 11·0 | 13·5 | 13·3 |
| Italy | … | 9·4 | 9·9 | |||||
Source: OECD: "Profits and rates of return" by Professor T. P. Hill—updated by author. | ||||||||
Figures for profitability in the wool textile industry are available only for the United Kingdom. They are at book values, which approximate to historic cost, and are published by the wool textile EDC in "Finance and profitability in the wool textile industry 1972–3–1976–7", a copy of which has been placed in the Library. Figures for the clothing industry are not available.