§ Mr. Gouldasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will give a direction to the Bank of England not to spend any money from the reserves to stop the pound from floating down.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonIt is not the practice to comment in detail on intervention policy in the exchange markets.
§ Mr. Gouldasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the effective appreciation of the £ sterling against the German, French and Italian currencies over the latest convenient period.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonI assume my hon. Friend is interested in the appreciation of the £ sterling against these currencies after allowance is made for relative rates of inflation. The figures are:
Appreciation of £ sterling over last six months Deutschemark … … 3 per cent. French franc … … 2 per cent. Italian lira … … 2 per cent. The figures are calculated by taking the change in the current spot rates over the rates at end-April 1977 and adjusting these by the relative changes in the consumer price indices over the period April 1977 to October 1977. For the French franc the period used was March 1977-September 1977.