§ Mr. Shoreasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the present level of Bank of England assistance to the money market; and what was the level on 31 March for the last four years.
§ Sir Geoffrey HoweIt is not possible to define "assistance" precisely in this context, but details of the bank's operations in the money market are contained in the bank's annual report. The report for the year to end-February 1981 was published today and contains280W information up to that date. For operational reasons it is not the practice to provide information on the size of the bank's recent operations, but the level of these operations is broadly intended to offset daily cash flows between the Bank of England and the money markets.