§ Mr. William Rossasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report such information as is available to him for each year or financial year, since the United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community, showing the maximum, minimum and average rate of interest paid on loans received by organisations and individuals in the United Kingdom from the European Economic Community; and what were the average interest rates on the United Kingdom money market in each of those years.
§ Mr. Ian Stewart[pursuant to his reply, 4 July 1984, c. 151]: The available information is as follows. It is not possible to calculate average annual rates on the loans without disproportionate cost. Moreover, information on loans to the private sector was not held centrally before 1978.
Loans from Community institutions are normally offered in a mix of currencies and the interest charged is determined by the particular mix for individual loans. Therefore, the private and public sector figures given are not directly comparable.
Details of the average money market interest rates can be found in table 13.8 (and its predecessors) in "Financial Statistics".
*Interest paid on EC Loans to the Private Sector †Interest paid on EC Loans to the Public Sector Year Minimum Maximum Minimum Maximum 1973 ‡ ‡ — — 1974 ‡ ‡ 8.3 10.5 1975 ‡ ‡ 8.5 10.5 1976 ‡ ‡ ║6.0 9.6 1977 ‡ ‡ 7.4 9.6 1978 7.5 7.5 5.7 11.0 1979 7.5 9.5 9.5 12.0 1980 9.5 10.0 8.6 13.2 1981 11.0 11.0 11.5 14.6 1982 11.0 11.5 9.4 14.0 1983 8.0 10.0 8.3 11.4 ¶1984 8.0 9.0 9.8 10.7 * Loans from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) can attract an interest rebate of up to 5 per cent, depending upon the employment created per project. † These are minima and maxima weighted average foreign currency interest rates of Public Sector loans drawn under the Exchange cover scheme from European Institutions. ‡ Information not readily available. Prior to 1978 and the setting up of the Exchange Risk Guarantees Scheme information was not kept centrally. ║ Only one loan which had split rates of 6 per cent, for 5 years and 9 per cent, thereafter. ¶ To date.