§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Denis Healey)Dr. Witteveen, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, has told me that he supports both the economic strategy which I have described—[An HON. MEMBER: "He must be mad."]—and the measures the Government are taking, and is prepared to recommend acceptance of my request for the standby arrangement to the Executive Directors of the Fund. I have arranged for copies of my letter to him applying for the standby to be made available in the Vote Office this afternoon.
Before the Fund Board meets there will be a meeting of the Group of Ten countries, which stand ready, under the General Arrangements to Borrow, to provide the Fund with the usable currencies it needs for large drawings if its own available currencies are inadequate. I am confident that, in a matter of days after the end of the year, the operation will be complete and the reserves replenished.
The standby arrangements this time cover a two-year period, so that we can make the necessary adjustment without imposing unacceptable strains on the social contract and the industrial strategy. In total we shall be able to draw up to nearly $4 billion, $1.15 billion of it immediately and over $1 billion more before the end of 1977. This, I am confident, will transform the external financing position in 1977.