§ Mr. Skeetasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total of interest charges involved in servicing the balance of payments deficit for the current year and the figure for the past year.
§ Mr. DellIt is not possible to give a meaningful estimate of the total interest cost of financing the current account deficit. The deficit in 1973 and the first half of 1974 has been offset by a wide variety of capital inflows, including a substantial unidentified element. In addition, interest on many of the identified net inflows has been on floating rate terms so that the interest payable cannot be precisely estimated.