Wednesday, 11 August 2010

British Economic Policy of the 1960s and the Euro

On 11 May 1965, the Finance Minister announced that local and central government expenditure was reduced to restore the balance of payments equilibrium, and allow the nation to live within their incomes.



Within five months after the declaration of the Minister of Finance, Mr. Berne British Embassy in Germany, said the German newspaper Neue Zcheap nfl jerseys眉rcher Zeitung (NZZ) 12 October 1965 in a detailed analysis of the crisis, Sterling, and made clear why the UK is the euro-dollar market turning to the Minister of Finance of the funding to alleviate problem. In his view, that the origin of the crisis of confidence was primarily UK-based rather than foreign companies, of which kept most of their reservations to a minimum 拢 1,961, and what happens in the fall of 1964, a panicky flight of the book by the national headlines with her.

assumed that the UK had about one thousand million pounds to re-pay as a result of the various arrangements made since December 1964, and that of this about 10% had to be repaid by May 1965, a third by December 1967, and the rest by May 1970. About five hundred million pounds would be regained though the reversal of “leads and lags” and other positions, and it would be possible, if the economy could be brought reasonably into balance, for the UK to recover the remaining five hundred million pounds by 1970. However, although it was possible for the UK to re-pay these amounts, the article quoted that the UK’s reserves were so low that the UK will remain under heavy strain. The article further discussed that there were talks of some transfer of UK sterling debts to the IMF, but this was not appropriate since the sterling debts were of a normal commercial nature. The conclusion was that the logical course was a long-term foreign loan and that the UK would probably, seeks such a loan. That, the main priority was first, to overcome the short-term disturbances, and secondly to have achieved some success in the introduction of long-term policies .

It soon became apparent that borrowing abroad by local authorities and the nationalised industries and the interest shown by the LCC’s (London County Council) proposal to raise a loan in Euro-dollars, was a way to relieve the Chancellor of its financing problem. Various possibilities of Long-term borrowing, were examined as a means of assisting the UK balance of payments. However, the benefit to the reserves would only accrue if the proceeds of external borrowing was applied to financing expenditure which had to be made in any case, and not used as a basis for additional expenditure .

However, it was not until 1967 (the second half of the 1960s), that the UK government actually began to investigate the possibility of its nationalised industries and public authorities borrowing on the Euro-dollar market. This argument was further developed by the Treasury by 1969, which had for some time been arguing that it would be useful for the UK reserves, if the UK could, in some form, borrow abroad. However, the UK government itself could not borrow as, although the other governments have borrowed in the European capital market, these have tended to be the less developed countries, and thus a move by the UK would have been regarded with suspicion. It was suggested therefore, that the Government encourage local authorities and nationalised industries to borrow abroad (most obviously where interest rates are low) by operating through the Exchange equalisation Account, and giving the local authority an exchange rate guarantee, in return for which a small charge would be made. In view of this proposition, Mr. Macdonald (MP Labour – Chislehurst) asked the following question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the 14th February 1969 in the House of Commons , with the proposed reply:

Question: Whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer is aware that borrowing in overseas capital markets by the nationalised industries would benefit the balance of payments, and what steps he proposes to take to encourage such borrowing?

Answer: The Chancellor agreed that there would be advantage to the balance of payments if those nationalised industries who have the power to do so were to borrow at medium and long-term in these markets. The Treasury is therefore prepared to give consent to such borrowings and, in addition, in appropriate cases, to make special arrangements to relieve the industries of the associated exchange uncertainties.

B. The Euro-dollar market

City corporations of both European and other countries had borrowed US dollars in the foreign currency market (e.g. Milan, Amsterdam, Oslo, Tokyo, Yokohama). Only UK local authorities had not borrowed externally except by taking sterling deposits directly or indirectly from non-residents. One of the most significant developments in the Euro-dollar market in 1963 has been the growth of long-term deposits. In 1963, for instance, deposits of up to three years’ maturity were rare; in 1964 they were common. Paul Einzig (in the September issue of the Journal of Finance) in 1964, argued that Arab recipients of oil royalties owned most of the long-term deposits . This source of funds to the nfl jerseysmarket had been growing greatly in 1963, and had compensated for withdrawals of officially owned funds. This development was welcomed in the market by the Euro-bankers, which meant that they were no longer at the mercy of changes in official policy. The ease with which the market had adjusted for withdrawals of official funds was witnessed by the stability of interest rates in 1963 and 1964. Apart

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