asked the Minister for Finance the official estimate of the growth rate for 1979 as of January 1979 and the latest revised estimate for 1979 to date.
Written Answers. - 1979 Growth Rate.
79.
The Government's economic targets for 1979 included growth in national output of 6½ per cent. Economic growth this year will be below this target because of the much higher than anticipated oil price rise and because of the damage caused by industrial disputes. I made it clear in my Budget speech that the targets, including that for national output, were not forecasts of what would happen without real effort on anyone's part but that their achievement depended upon a coherent communal effort. In view of the circumstances I have outlined, the best that can be hoped for this year is a growth rate of about 5 per cent.