The Radcliffe Committee on the Working of the Monetary System recognised that a comprehensive census of UK external assets and liabilities would be a most formidable undertaking. Recently the Board of Trade have published estimates of UK direct investments abroad and of similar overseas investments in the United Kingdom which have gone far to fill one of the main gaps in the knowledge of the long-term capital position. Fresh information has also become available for short-term assets and liabilities in sterling and foreign currencies, for the liabilities to overseas residents of hire purchase finance houses and local authorities, and for outward and inward portfolio investment. It is therefore now possible to present a fuller picture than before of the United Kingdom's external assets and liabilities. This article assembles the information available for the end of 1962 and indicates the gaps and limitations which remain.
Published on
01 March 1964
An inventory of UK external assets and liabilities end-1962