§ 3. Mr. Dixonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what he estimates to be the increase in the money supply in the third quarter of 1971.
§ Mr. HigginsI would again refer my hon. Friend to the answer my hon. Friend the Chief Secretary gave on 18th May to my hon. Friend the Member for The High Peak (Mr. Le Marchant).—[Vol. 817, c. 1064–5.]
§ Mr. DixonWill my hon. Friend say whether the Government's policy on money supply is now passive or neutral and, if it is neutral, what rate of inflation and what rate of real expansion the increase in the money supply is intended to accommodate?
§ Mr. HigginsThe objective of the money policy is to find a middle course between excessive monetary tightness, which would impede the growth of industrial output which we want, and excessive monetary ease, which would give an additional boost to demand above what is appropriate.