§ So far as our monetary situation and the National Debt are concerned, owing to the revaluation in terms of sterling of our dollar debts after devaluation, which involved an increase of £636 million, and to the revaluation of the sterling balances of the International Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which cost a further £173 million, our National Debt has been increased over the year by £809 million, but we have during the same period reduced the debt by £173 million, so that our net increase of debt is £636 million. This is, of course, very different from last year's result, when we paid off £453 million of short-term debt, but I then made it clear that we should not repeat that record as we were not budgeting for any substantial overall surplus.
§ The note circulation of £1,267 million at the end of March remains virtually unaltered from the figure at the end of the previous March, while net Bank deposits, at £5,588 million last month, show a small movement downwards, which is in the right direction.
§ The main declared policy of the Budget last year was to maintain the degree of disinflation we had then attained. Although in the middle of the year there was a slight tendency towards more inflation, which was liable to be accentuated by devaluation, yet with the adequate correctives which we then applied we can now I think say that we are in a less inflationary condition than at this time last year; so that if we want 54 to "ride comfortably" and maintain our primary objective of full employment, our job now is to guard against any kind of increase in inflationary pressure.