§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) by how much £ sterling appreciated or depreciated against each of the following currencies for each of the following periods(a) the dollar,(b) the mark (West German),(c) the French franc,(d) the Japanese yen and(e) the lira from (i) 1 January 1977 to date, (ii) 1 January 1978 to date, and (iii) 1 January 1979 to date;
(2) by how much £ sterling has appreciated against the Finnish markka(a) since 1 January 1977,(b) since 1 January 1978 and(c) 1 January 1979.
§ Mr. LawsonThe information is as follows:
§ Sir Geoffrey HoweThe Bank of England, on behalf of the Treasury, on 6 July deposited 20 per cent. of the gold and 20 per cent. of the United States dollars in the official reserves with European Monetary Co-operation Fund in exchange for ECUs on a three-month revolving swap basis. The amount of reserves deposited was approximately $3.3 billion, of which approximately $2.5 billion consisted of United States dollars and $0.8 billion of gold, valued at around $178 per fine ounce, the price at present used for valuing gold in the reserves. The EMCF values gold at around $250 per fine ounce, and so the reserves for July will show a book gain of around $0.3 billion, representing the difference between the two methods of valuing the gold swapped for ECUs.