§ I now come to the balance of payments. Visible trade was roughly in balance in 1970, and invisibles again earned us a good surplus, bigger than in 1969. As the House already knows, we ended the year with a record surplus of £630 million on current account. But the House should also know this. If one examines the figures for last year more closely, the trends of volume and value of visible exports and imports make it clear why there is no room for complacency as far as the current account is concerned. I will explain why. In 1970 the value of our exports rose by 12 1364 per cent.—hence the record surplus. But the volume rose by less than 4 per cent. By contrast, the volume of our imports rose by over 6 per cent. So the House will see that last year, in volume terms, our imports rose nearly twice as fast as our exports. The significance of these figures is obvious.
§ Nevertheless, the strong current account surplus in 1970 enabled additions to be made to the nation's overseas assets and also made it possible to reduce official liabilities. Taking account also of capital transactions of all kinds, the total currency flow in 1970, that is, net receipts of foreign exchange, was favourable by nearly £1,300 million, getting on for twice as much as in 1969.
§ We shall not have full figures for the first quarter of 1971 for some time yet, but there has been a large currency inflow during the quarter. In addition, we received £125 million in special drawing rights as our share of the annual distribution on 1st January.
§ I must now report to the House on the situation concerning our overseas debts. At the end of June, 1970, just after we took office, short and medium-term official debt stood at £1,461 million of which £992 million was to the International Monetary Fund, and £469 million to other monetary authorities. The House will be pleased to know that the whole of this £469 million of non-I.M.F. debt has now been repaid. That leaves the I.M.F. debt which, as I have said, stood at £992 million at the end of June, 1970. It has since been reduced by £24 million as a result of small sterling drawings by other countries, leaving £968 million outstanding.
§ We were not obliged to start repaying this outstanding debt until next June. I have nevertheless agreed with the Fund a schedule providing for repayments by eight quarterly instalments, beginning this month, March, of the £551 million which is outstanding in respect of the 1968 drawing. And the House will be pleased to know that I have arranged to repay in advance tomorrow the whole of the first four instalments of that schedule, amounting to a total of £285 million.
§ To sum up, when we took office the outstanding short and medium term debt stood at £1,461 million. Including the repayments I have just announced, we 1365 have made a total repayment of £778 million; and the debt therefore now stands at £683 million. So the debt has been more than halved since we took office. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] The debt now stands at £683 million compared with £71 million in October, 1964. [HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."]
§ It is right that I should emphasise here that the volume of I.M.F. debt which still remains is considerable. It amounts to a total of £683 million, all of it debt incurred between June, 1968 and March, 1970, comprising the rest of the 1968 drawing and the £417 million drawn under the 1969 stand-by. This remaining debt represents a real burden which we have to discharge. It is bound to be a continuing constraint on our freedom of action.