HC Deb 12 June 1956 vol 554 cc227-8
31. Mr. Roy Jenkins

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer to what factors he attributes the recent weakness in the exchange rate for sterling.

Mr. H. Macmillan

Quotations of the official rate for sterling since I took office have been as follows:

30th December, 1955 2.80 5/16
11th May 2.80⅞
25th May 2.80 11/16
5th June 2.80⅛
6th June 2.80¼
7th June 2.80⅜
8th June 2.80 7/16

The rate yesterday was 2.80 7/16.

These minor fluctuations are due to a number of factors, which I would find it an unprofitable exercise to try to anaylse.

Mr. Jenkins

Will the Chancellor not agree that the figures which he has just given to the House are highly confusing, and will he not further agree that there was, a week or so ago, a weakness, widely commented upon, both in the official rate and in the transferable rate? Does he attribute that primarily to short-term factors, such as his own Newcastle speech, or to more worrying underlying factors?

Mr. Macmillan

I am accused first of putting down the rates by my speeches, and then of putting them up again. I wish it were as easy as that.

Mr. H. Wilson

While we all welcome the improvement in the rate of sterling since this Question was, in fact, put down—I do not attribute any causality to that—is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that it has been widely said during the last week, among Conservative newspapers as well as in other quarters, that some of these very expensive speeches we have had to suffer recently in this country have been responsible for a feeling here and abroad that the Government are abdicating all sense of economic responsibility?

Mr. Macmillan

I am sorry for anything which may happen between the time a Question is put down and when it is answered. Those are, of course, inconveniences to which we are all subjected. If the right hon. Gentleman can bear a little good news—I have to be careful, because I have to keep a balance between being too optimistic and too defeatist—I would tell him that reserves have risen during this period I referred to—since December—by £89 million. If he can bear a little more good news, I will tell him that if he would read the tape today he would see the best trade figures which have been announced for a very long time.