§ Mr. David Priceasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total value of the sterling balances at the latest convenient date; and how they are composed by reference to country and to year of redemption.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonThe latest published figures for the sterling balances are those shown in Table 20 of the September edition of theBank of England Quarterly Bulletin.
75WThe figures show that at 30th June 1976 the exchange reserves in sterling held by central monetary institutions, and banking and money market liabilities in sterling to other holders amounted in all to £6,335 million. Of this, £3,111 million represented official holdings held by central monetary institutions; the remaining £3,224 million represented private holdings.
Individual country holdings are not published but analysis by broad groupings of countries is available, as summarised below:
£ million 30th June 1976 Official Private EEC Countries 113 776 Oil Exporting Countries 1,964 444 Other countries 638 2,004 International Organisations (other than IMF) 396 — Whilst the published figures for the balances are broken down into holdings of British Government stocks, external deposits and Treasury Bills, no further breakdown is available which would provide a maturity profile.