§ Mr. OlnerTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what proposals she has to change the 1997–98 External Finance Limit for the Commonwealth Development Corporation. [30679]
§ Clare ShortThe External Finance Limit for CDC for 1997–98 will be increased by £20,000,000 from minus £37,700,000. The change is in order to allow CDC to manage a temporary liquidity constraint. This year, CDC 7W have been very successful in developing a new pipeline of projects to meet their growth targets but have had a bunching of investments in the first quarter 1998 which has led to a liquidity constraint at the end of the financial year. Over the course of calendar year 1998, they will have evened out the flows. The increase will be charged to the Reserve and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.