HL Deb 29 April 1963 vol 249 cc1-2

2.35 p.m.

LORD BARNBY

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government with regard to the official Exchange Rate in the Congo—

  1. (1) What changes have occurred in the past two years;
  2. (2) What, at six-month periods since the intervention of United Nations troops, have been the estimated relationship of Black Market quotations to the official rate.]

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE EARL OF DUNDEE)

My Lords, until October, 1961, all foreign currency had to be changed at the official rate of 140 Congolese francs to the £1. As from the beginning of November in that year, while this obligation was still applied to 80 per cent. of foreign currency, permission was granted to convert the remaining 20 per cent. at the free market rate of the day. This produced an average rate of about 181 francs to the £1, and it has remained at about this figure ever since. So far as the second part of my noble friend's Question is concerned, Her Majesty's Government do not make any official estimate of black market quotations in foreign currency.

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