§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, further to his written reply dated 8 March concerning the issue of Treasury bills, whether he will publish in the Official Report his reasons for giving the figures as at 31 March instead of the average for the year as a whole; and whether the figures he gave were representative of the year as a whole.
§ Mr. Bruce-GardyneAs the national debt, the money supply and Treasury bills outstanding are all stocks, it is appropriate to compare them as at the closest possible dates. Figures for the national debt outstanding are published as at 31 March only each year in the Consolidated Fund and National Loans Fund accounts. My earlier reply was therefore based on figures for Treasury bills outstanding as at 31 March.
The following table shows average values of Treasury bills outstanding as at the end of each quarter as proportions of the PSBRs, and of the average levels of sterling M3 outstanding as at the end of each quarter.
161W
Average value of Treasury bills outstanding at the end of each quarter as a proportion of 7972–73 1980–81 (i) the PSBR 1.456 0.306 1973 1981 (ii) the average level of sterling M3 (seasonally adjusted) outstanding at the end of each quarter 0.157 0.036 Figures of Treasury bills and money stock outstanding as at the end of each quarter are published in Financial Statistics.