§ 18. Sir C. Osborneasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much more Great Britain must earn than it spends 1021 in 1968 in order to wipe out the £540 million adverse balance of payments which occurred in 1967, and to repay the foreign loans due for repayment in 1968.
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsI have nothing to add to what I said on this subject in my Budget Speech.—[Vol. 761, c. 255 and 258.]
§ Sir C. OsborneMay I beg the right hon. Gentleman not to give me a clever but a proper answer? Will he promise the country that, by the end of this year and for this year, we shall be in balance of payments? Secondly, can he get his trade union allies to believe what he tells them—that they must produce £750 million mole of wealth without their being paid a brass farthing more for producing it?
§ Mr. JenkinsI did not give the hon. Gentleman a clever answer and did not intend to do so. But I cannot add usefully, in answer to a Question. to what I outlined as best I could in my Budget Statement and elsewhere, and which cannot be amplified in the course of 10 words or so at Question Time.
§ Mr. BiffenIn view of the trade figures since devaluation, including those published today, is it the right hon. Gentleman's expectation rather than his hope that we shall be in balance during the coming year and have a surplus of £500 million on current account next year?
§ Mr. JenkinsI see no reason to revise my view that it is essential for this country to go for a very large balance of payments surplus in 1969.