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Thursday, November 29, 1973
Mr. Haddon-Cave said it was very difficult to speak "with
any great certainty about the future course of fuel prices." However,
household expenditure on kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas currently
accounted for only about one-and-a-half per cent of total household
expenditure.
Even if total expenditure on electricity was included, instead
of simply its fuel oil cost component, the figure would rise to only
three per cent.
On future supplies of rice, Mr. Haddon-Cave said the view is
widely held that world wide rice yields in 1974 will be an all-time
record.
"The increase in the price of rice alone this year, on a seasonally
adjusted basis, accounted for something like a quarter of the overall
increase in the General Consumer Price Index," he added.
The fact that rice was likely to be more plentiful in the near
future was, in itself, likely to have a "profoundly stabilising effect
on the rate at which consumer prices increase."
On the question of fish supplies, the Financial Secretary said that
to restrict exports of fish, at this time, would have only a marginal effect
on supplies, "and it could well damage the longer-term interests of the
fishing industry."
1
"But, 11 he added," I can see there is a potential weakness in the
Fish Marketing Ordinance in the sense that the Director of Agriculture and
Fisheries has no powers to control exports."
Mr. Haddon-Gave said he intended to introduce an amendment to the
ordinance "at an early date" to provide for a licensing system in case it
should ever prove necessary to restrict exports.
/Dealing