asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each of the main industrial countries for each year since 1970 the economically most reliable comparison which shows the borrowing requirement as a percentage of the national resources.

As I explained to the hon. Member in my answer to him of Tuesday 18 December—[Vol. 976, Col. 129–130]—the aggregate for which data are consistently available for the pur- poses of comparisons of different countries' borrowing requirements for the run of years in question is the general Government financial deficit. The sources to which I referred the hon. Member in that answer will provide him with the information he now needs, and are still the most up-to-date available.