§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will circulate in the Official Reporta table showing for each quarter since the beginning of 1976 the change in the reserves as a percentage of the external and foreign currency finance component of the money supply, and the effect in each quarter of the increase or decrease in foreign investment in public sector securities, foreign investment in United Kingdom bank deposits, and switching by United Kingdom banks into and out of the £ sterling.
§ Mr. LawsonThe change in the reserves is often of a different sign from312W the external and foreign currency finance of the money supply, so it is not meaningful to express one as a percentage of the other. Information on the composition of the external and foreign currency finance of the money supply is published in table 7.3 of Financial Statistics. Information on overseas investment in public sector securities is given in table 1.8.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the growth of the eligible liabilities of the United Kingdom banking system each year since 1970; and what is the ratio between the increase each year and the increase in sterling M3.
§ Mr. LawsonFigures for eligible liabilities of the United Kingdom banking system are compiled at mid-month. Monthly figures since mid-October 1971, when they were first compiled, are given in theEconomic Trends Annual Supplement 1980 Edition, page 182, with figures for the most recent months in table 6.16 of Financial Statistics, the latest edition of which is for January 1980.
Sterling M3 has been compiled for similar mid-monthly dates from July 1971. Relevant figures for this series to December 1974 are:
Sterling M3: changes mid-December to mid-December (£ million) 1971 to 1972 5,236 1972 to 1973 6,417 1973 to 1974 2,730 From mid-January 1974 mid-monthly figures are given in successive issues of the Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, table 11.1 in the latest issue, which is for December 1979, with the most recent figures in table 7.1 of Financial Statistics.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will circulate in the Official Reporta table showing for each year since 1970 the estimated value of transactions, by class of transaction, between the United Kingdom and other countries which are not recorded under sterling M3 or domestic credit expansion but which affect the total amount of liquidity or credit in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. LawsonThis information is not compiled in the format requested and to do so would incur disproportionate cost. Recorded financial flows between United 313W Kingdom residents and non-residents are presented in the balance of payments accounts—for example, Financial Statistics table 11.2—and, using different conventions, in the sector financial accounts—for example, Financial Statistics, table 1.8.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table comparing in each of the years 1976 to 1979 (a) the change in the gold and dollar reserves, (b) the type of asset affected by the movement into and out of the United Kingdom and the net change in value of the asset as a result and (c) the net effect on, respectively, Ml, M3, sterling M3, domestic credit expansion and the monetary base.
§ Mr. LawsonInformation on the change in the reserves and the compositions of the capital account inflows and outflows is given in the quarterly articles on the balance of payments inEconomic Trends. Information up to the third quarter of 1979 was published in the December 1979 issue. There is no satisfactory way of measuring what the net effect of these flows on the various monetary aggregates was; much will depend on how domestic transactions were affected.