§ Mr. Denzil DaviesTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate, for the latest available financial year, of the proportion of the public sector borrowing requirement which was funded with purchases of Government stock by the pension funds and life assurance companies.
§ Mr. Nelson[holding answer 19 July 1993]: The PSBR was £36.5 billion in 1992–93. Data for 1992 in the financial statistics table 3.5 of the Central Statistical Office's database show that net purchases of gilts by British pension funds and life assurance companies were £15.5 billion. Gilt sales to pension funds and life assurance companies were therefore 42 per cent. of the PSBR.