§ 18. Mr. Maurice Macmillanasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why figures showing the components of the estimated borrowing requirement for 1968–69 were not published in the April issue of "Financial Statistics".
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsThe provisional out-turn estimate of the Central Government borrowing requirement for 1968–69 was not available in time for inclusion in the April issue of "Financial Statistics".
§ Mr. MacmillanWhy has it taken so long to discover what in the net receipts for market transactions is the proportion of marketable securities? Is it because, out of a total of £998 million, only £821 million is the much-vaunted negative borrowing requirement and £453 million is the actual creation of new inflationary money?
§ Mr. JenkinsThis relates to the publication of particular figures. The figures about which the hon. Gentleman asked in his original Question, not the entirely extraneous figures he produced in his supplementary question, were published in the financial statement of 15th April. They could not be included in the regular financial statistics published later, because at Budget time it is necessary to give printing priority to the annual statements, and this makes it possible to publish the figures at a later stage than in the regular monthly publications.