HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Chancellor announces new open policy on official reserves [September 1997]

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 22 September 1997.

A new policy of openness on the UK Government’s gold and foreign exchange reserves has been announced by the Chancellor Gordon Brown.

Addressing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Interim Committee in Hong Kong, the Chancellor said he would publish a new quarterly report on foreign exchange operations, which would include the UK’s forward foreign exchange position. He would also be publishing an annual set of accounts.

The Chancellor said:

“Most governments, including my own, have maintained a veil of secrecy over official forward exchange transactions. This can mean that markets have incomplete, and sometimes quite misleading, information about a government’s foreign exchange reserves and the scale of intervention that has been undertaken.

“Today, I want to announce an end to all that. Full information on our outstanding forward position will be published – with a short delay – in a quarterly report. And full accounts of spot and forward positions will be published annually. So we are literally opening up the books.”