Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the value of Gross Domestic Product for each of the G20 countries in pounds sterling; and for each such country, what proportion of the combined GDP of the G20 this represents.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Table 1 below details the answers to your questions.
Table 1: G20 Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
| 2018 GDP current prices (£bn) | % of G20 total GDP |
Argentina | 389.2 | 0.7 |
Australia | 1063.8 | 1.9 |
Brazil | 1399.2 | 2.5 |
Canada | 1282.9 | 2.3 |
China | 10014.3 | 18.2 |
France | 2082.7 | 3.8 |
Germany | 2960.0 | 5.4 |
India | 2036.7 | 3.7 |
Indonesia | 765.9 | 1.4 |
Italy | 1555.1 | 2.8 |
Japan | 3724.5 | 6.8 |
Mexico | 915.5 | 1.7 |
Russia | 1241.5 | 2.3 |
Saudi Arabia | 589.2 | 1.1 |
South Africa | 275.8 | 0.5 |
South Korea | 1288.9 | 2.3 |
Turkey | 577.8 | 1.1 |
UK | 2119.1 | 3.9 |
USA | 15417.1 | 28.0 |
EU excluding France, Germany, Italy and UK | 5319.3 | 9.7 |
Total | 55018.4 | 100.0 |
Source: IMF WEO October 2019, Thomson Reuters Eikon
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to suspend any additional HM Treasury funding provided to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, either through the Barnett Formula or other means, if those countries incur additional costs resulting from any longer period of lockdown than is in place in England.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government is focused on responding to Covid-19 across the UK, both through UK-wide measures and funding to the devolved administrations through the Barnett formula.
We have so far announced almost £7 billion of additional funding to the devolved administrations to support people, business and public services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This means £3.5 billion for the Scottish Government, £2.1 billion for the Welsh Government and £1.2 billion for the Northern Ireland Executive.
This is in addition to the UK-wide measures that the people and businesses in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will benefit from, including the Job Retention Scheme, Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
We are working closely with the devolved administrations and will continue to do so as we take steps out of lockdown.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the role of the Office for Budget Responsibility in economic forecasting, in the light of the Treasury's analysis of the economic impact of Brexit.
Answered by Lord Bates
The OBR’s remit is set out in the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011 which is to ‘examine and report on the sustainability of the public finances’. In doing so, the OBR must produce at least two forecasts per financial year which must include the impact of government policy where it can be quantified with reasonable accuracy.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the civil servants and economic advisers who wrote the report HM Treasury analysis; the immediate economic impact of leaving the EU, published 23 May 2016, are still in the same posts.
Answered by Lord Bates
Civil servants across the department contributed to writing the HMT publications. HM Treasury does not comment on the positions or appointments of specific junior officials.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the publication of the report HM Treasury analysis; the immediate economic impact of leaving the EU, published 23 May 2016, that stated in the executive summary, "A vote to leave would cause an immediate and profound economic shock … which would push the UK into recession and lead to a sharp rise in unemployment, by around 500,000”, what was the rate of growth for (1) 2016, and (2) 2017; and what were the corresponding changes in the employment and unemployment figures.
Answered by Lord Bates
The rate of UK growth was 1.9% in 2016, and 1.8% in 2017.
In the year to November 2016, employment grew by 286,000 and by 415,000 in the year to November 2017. Unemployment fell by 85,000 in the year to November 2016 and by 160,000 in the year to November 2017.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reputational risks associated with hosting an International Monetary Fund event at which Christine Lagarde, who was found guilty in France of criminal negligence in 2016, gave a speech.
Answered by Lord Bates
On 20 December 2017, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde spoke at a Press Conference in HM Treasury after the completion of the IMF’s annual Article IV assessment of the UK economy. She did this in her official capacity as the Managing Director of the IMF.
In 2016, the IMF Executive Board issued a statement reaffirming its full confidence in the Managing Director’s ability to continue to effectively carry out her duties. The UK supported this statement.
This followed a decision by France’s Cour de Justice de la République that Lagarde’s action were not serious enough to warrant any penalty, nor a criminal record.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on which occasions in the last ten years they have given an official Treasury platform to someone convicted of a criminal charge in a court in another EU country.
Answered by Lord Bates
HM Treasury does not hold any information of this kind on external stakeholders who may have spoken at HM Treasury events in the last 10 years.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what were (1) the International Monetary Fund predictions of the UK growth rate, and (2) the actual growth rate, over the last five years.
Answered by Lord Bates
Forecasts for UK GDP growth published in the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook over the last five years are summarised in the table below.
| GDP growth (%) | |||||
2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | ||
Growth rate | 2.1 | 3.1 | 2.3 | 1.9 |
| |
IMF forecasts | Apr 2013 | 0.7 | 1.5 |
|
|
|
Oct 2013 | 1.4 | 1.9 |
|
|
| |
Apr 2014 |
| 2.9 | 2.5 |
|
| |
Oct 2014 |
| 3.2 | 2.7 |
|
| |
Apr 2015 |
|
| 2.7 | 2.3 |
| |
Oct 2015 |
|
| 2.5 | 2.2 |
| |
Apr 2016 |
|
|
| 1.9 | 2.2 | |
Oct 2016 |
|
|
| 1.8 | 1.1 | |
Apr 2017 |
|
|
|
| 2.0 | |
Oct 2017 |
|
|
|
| 1.7 | |
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on which dates during the last seven years they have hosted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the Treasury for the IMF to launch a report on the British economy.
Answered by Lord Bates
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) undertakes regular consultations on each of its member countries, usually every year, as part of its country surveillance function, under Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement. During the last seven years, concluding statements of IMF Article IV missions to the UK have been published, accompanied by an IMF press conference hosted at HM Treasury, on 6 June 2011, 22 May 2012, 22 May 2013, 6 June 2014, 11 December 2015, 13 May 2016 and 20 December 2017.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the most recent EU Commission proposals for a pan-European tobacco track-and-trace scheme in the light of their commitment to cut a further £10 billion of red tape over the course of this Parliament.
Answered by Lord Bates
The government has been working on the draft implementing legislation for Articles 15 and 16 of the EU Tobacco Products Directive with the Commission and other Member States. We are aware of concerns raised by businesses affected and have been working to try to ensure that the system adopted is effective, efficient and proportionate in tackling the trade in illicit tobacco products which puts public health at risk and avoids the payment of duty. This includes working to ensure that the burdens imposed by new EU regulations are kept to a minimum. A number of amendments have been made to the proposed regulations in line with meeting these objectives.
The Directive provides for the costs of the scheme, including the necessary equipment for those involved in the supply chain to be met by the tobacco industry and for the identification codes need by independent retailers to be obtained by their suppliers on their behalf if desired.
It has not been possible for the UK to produce its own assessment of the overall business impacts or effectiveness in tackling the illicit trade due to the continuing changes to the proposed regulations.
In responding to the consultation on possible licensing of the tobacco supply chain, the government considered the additional controls that would be offered by measures under this Directive and concluded that there was currently no case for an additional licensing scheme operated by HM Revenue & Customs to tackle the illicit trade.