§ Mr. Cantasked the Chancellor of the Excequer whether he will make a statement indicating the financial resources available in foreign currencies for the support of the £ sterling from the Bank of England, the International Monetary Fund, Central Bank Swap agreements and the EEC.
§ Mr. DellIf it were decided to augment the official reserves, which stood at $7,132 million at the end of April, from sources other than the continuing public426W sector foreign currency borrowing programme, the Government could consider the use of the following facilities:
$ billion Swap arrangement with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York 3.0 IMF general account, excluding the United Kingdom's reserve position at the fund, which counts as part of the reserves 3.2 IMF oil facility—at prescent a maximum of 1.2 EEC short- and medium-term facilities—a theoretical maximum of 5.0 If we remain in the EEC another possibility would be to take up on external loan raised by the EEC, which has powers to borrow up to $3 billion principal and interest.
These existing facilities are available on a variety of terms and conditions. They do not exclude the possibility of additional ad hoc arrangements or the development of other multilateral facilities.