Written question asked by Jeremy Hunt (Conservative) on Thursday, 18 October 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 25 October 2007. It was answered by Baroness Ussher (Labour) on Thursday, 25 October 2007 on behalf of the Treasury.

Productivity

Question: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the average percentage change in the productivity of (a) the financial services sector and (b) the economy as a whole in each year since 1998.

Answer: There is no official estimate for the average productivity change in the financial services sector. A more detailed explanation can be found in the Productivity Handbook published by the Office for National Statistics"www.statistics.gov.uk"The Treasury's latest assessment of trend productivity growth over recent years is set out in Table A2 of the 2007 pre-Budget report. Data on whole economy output per worker and output per hour worked for each year since 1998 are available from the Office for National Statistics.

Secondary information