This article continues the annual series which began in June 1962.
Provisional details of the national debt outstanding at 31st March 1977, analysed by type of debt, have already been published in the July 1977 issue of Financial Statistics. The present analysis looks at the holders of the debt. First, it distinguishes between market holdings, and official holdings (i.e. all debt held by central government funds and accounts - including, for example, the Exchange Equalisation Account and the national insurance funds - and by the Bank of England), and shows how much of the various forms of debt were held in market hands. It goes on to analyse in detail the distribution of sterling debt by type of holder. In Table B, figures for the market value of gilt-edged stocks are included for the first time, as well as the usual estimates mainly at nominal value; holdings of gilt-edged stocks are increasingly being reported at market value, but both the nominal and market value series are still partly estimated.
Distribution of the national debt at end-March 1977