Part of Oral Answers to Questions — National Finance – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 29 November 1973.
Mr Anthony Barber
, Altrincham and Sale
12:00,
29 November 1973
At the end of June 1970 the dollar value of the gold component of the reserve was £1,469 million. In June this year it was £901 million. We inherited considerable repayment obligations in June 1970, and that inheritance, broadly speaking, accounts for the difference between the two figures. It is certainly true that on the free market the price of gold has gone up ; that is a fact of life.