§ Mr. Sillarsasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is our current level of gold and foreign currency reserves; and if he will show how this compares in real terms with the previous 10 years.
§ Mr. DellAt the end of June the United Kingdom official reserves stood at $6,711 million, which is equivalent to £2,806 million if converted at the closing market rate on 28th June. The equivalent figures on 31st December 1973 were $6,476 million and £2,787 million.
Figures for earlier years are included in the "UK Balance of Payments 1973", Table 38:
TOTAL OFFICIAL RESERVES End of Year £ million 1964 827 1965 1,073 1966 1,107 1967 1,123 1968 1,009 1969 1,053 1970 1,178 1971 2,526 1972 2,167 Attention is drawn to the footnotes and page 78 for a description of the conversion rates used.
There is no price index available which could be used to give any meaningful series for these totals in real terms.