§ Mr. Weetchasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether he has any evidence that recent fluctuations in sterling have any connection with political and diplomatic factors;
(2) whether he has any evidence that the decline in the value of sterling has been exacerbated by withdrawals on the part of the Nigerian Government.
§ Mr, Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 14th June 1976;
104Wrather than the market rate at the time of the payments, and in return receives part of the interest rate benefit.
At the end of May 1976 borrowing under this scheme was equivalent to some $7.9 billion, or £4.4 billion at the exchange rates then prevailing.
Lists of all outstanding foreign currency public sector loans, including those covered by the exchange cover scheme, until the end of September 1975, and between October 1974 and the end of February 1976, were placed in the Library of the House of Commons on 14th October 1975 and 19th March 1976 respectively. I will now arrange for a further list, covering the period from March 1976 to end-May 1976, to be deposited there.
Vol. 913, c. 26], gave the following information
As my right hon. Friend told the House on 7th June, about a quarter of the fall in reserves since early March is attributable to reductions in the sterling balances held by overseas residents. These include private as well as a large number of official holders. It is not the practice to comment on the balances of individual holders, but I can assure the House that none of the major official holders played a predominant part in the 105W pressure, and that there is no evidence to support the rumours of widespread market sales by Nigeria. Nor do I have any evidence that political or diplomatic factors affected the movement of official or other sterling balances.