Balance of Payments

HC Deb 23 January 1968 vol 757 cc70-1W

76. Mr. Sheldon

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what improvement he now estimates there will be in the balance of payments this year.

Mr. Roy Jenkins

I cannot yet add to the statement in the Letter of Intent which my predecessor sent to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund on 23rd November, 1967, and I circulated in the OFFICIAL REPORT on 30th November.—[Vol. 755, c. 348–51.]

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what he calculates has been the loss to the balance of payments position of the United Kingdom in the last six months resulting from the closure of the Suez Canal.

Mr. Roy Jenkins

The loss resulting from the Middle Eastern situation as a whole was about £10 million a month in July-September, 1967; it may have been running at some £20 million a month in October-December.