HC Deb 16 July 1985 vol 83 c83W
Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the average variability of sterling against exchange rate mechanism currencies since the establishment of the European monetary system in terms of the real exchange rate measured in (a) consumer prices and (b) relative export prices.

Mr. Ian Stewart

The data necessary to calculate real sterling exchange rates and their variability can be found as follows:

  1. (a) nominal sterling exchange rates against all currencies in the exchange rate mechanism are published in Financial Statistics, table 13.1;
  2. (b) consumer price and export unit value indices are published in the country tables of the IMF's International Financial Statistics.

There are many alternative measures of exchange rate variability, and they can give widely varying results. Different measures will be appropriate in different circumstances.