BRITISH G.N.P. STILL RISING

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30561, 2 October 1964, Page 20

BRITISH G.N.P. STILL RISING

.Z.PJL.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, September 30.

Britain’s gross national product in 1963 reached £26,500m or nearly £5OO a head of the population, according to official figures published today.

The national income blue book, published by the Government, gave details of the national income and expenditure for the 11 years 1953 to 1963. It said that in the 10 years since 1953 the money value of the gross national product —the sum of the nation’s goods and services—increased by more than 75 per cent, a rise equivalent to an annual rate of increase of nearly 6 per cent. * Between 1962 and 1963, the gross national product increased by 5 per cent and all the main components of expenditure. private and public authorities, contributed to this rise. In producing this increase the totals of wages and profit incomes increased at the same rate but within the profit incomes, income from self-em-ployment increased least rapidly, by only lj per cent. Profits Rise Company profits, which had fallen in 1961 and increased by only 1) per cent in 1962, rose by 8 per cent in 1963. When the gross national product is revalued at constant prices, the increase between 1962 and 1963 is re-

duced to 3f per cent The items of expenditure which showed the largest increases in real terms were private consumption and exports both of which increased by 4 per cent. The least rapid rise was in investment, fixed capital formation and stockbuilding, which rose by 2 per cent. Personal saving in 1963 at 8j per cent of income after deduction of tax, was t per cent higher than in the previous year but below the previous highest figure of 9 per cent in 1961. In 1953 personal saving amounted to only 4 per cent of income after deduction of tax.