§ Mr. Skeetasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the depreciation of the £ sterling against the US dollar compared with 1971, and the depreciation of the £ sterling against the basket of selected currencies since that date.
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§ Mr. Robert SheldonThe pound sterling declined against the United States dollar by 26¾ per cent. from 21st December 1971 to the close on 10th March 1978. (In December 1971 a new alignment of currencies was announced after the Group of Ten meeting in Washington. The United Kingdom announced that the new parity for the pound against the dollar would be 2.60571.) Sterling's effective index, which measures the movements of sterling against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, takes 21st December 1971 as its base date. The index stood at 64.8 on 10th March 1978, implying a 35.2 per cent. depreciation.