Euro (Hansard, 2 March 1999)

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the total money supply of the currencies of the countries joining in the euro at the time of the euro's inception. [73240]

§ Ms Hewitt
Provisional data from the European Central Bank show that the money supply (M3) in the euro area at the end of 1998 stood at Euro 4,436.1 billion.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the total money supply of the United States dollar at the time of the euro's inception. [73242]

§ Ms Hewitt
Data for the US money stock is published in Federal Reserve Board Press release H6. This can be found on the Federal Reserve Board Website at http://www.federalreserve.gov.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the average inflation level of the countries joining the euro at the time of the euro's inception. [73241]

§ Ms Hewitt
The average level of inflation in the euro zone, as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), was 0.8 per cent. in December 1998.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the total money supply of sterling at the time of the euro's inception. [73243]

§ Ms Hewitt
Money supply data for the UK is available in table 3.2 of the Bank of England's monthly publication, "Monetary and Financial Statistics".