asked the Minister for Finance if in supplement to his reply of 2nd December, 1958, he will estimate for each of the years 1959/60 to 1963/64 (inclusive) the cost of (a) the interest charge, and (b) the sinking fund (indicating also, if possible, for each of the said years the amount likely to be received by way of interest on exchequer advances) on the assumption (1) that in each of the said years half of the amount estimated on page 50 of the Programme for Economic Expansion to be financed from Exchequer and non-Exchequer sources is borrowed on the same terms as those on which the latest national loan was raised, and (2) that in each of the said years the whole of the amount so estimated is similarly borrowed.
Written Answer. - Service of Public Debt.
32.
On the assumptions the Deputy wishes to make, close approximations to the figures for the debt charges can be obtained by increasing the figure for 1958/59, viz. £24.634 million, by 7% (interest 5½%, sinking fund 1½%) of (1) half of the amounts referred to in the question in respect of each of the years 1959/60 to 1963/64 and (2) the whole of these amounts.
The estimate of the amount likely to be received by way of interest on Exchequer advances in the year 1959/60 is £9 million. It is not possible to attempt an accurate estimate in respect of the subsequent years but it would not be unreasonable to assume an annual increase of between £300,000 and £500,000 at present interest charges.