39Th Annual Report of the Bank for International Settlements
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BANK FOR INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS THIRTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT 1st APRIL 1968 — 31st MARCH 1969 BASLE 9th June 1969 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction i I. Key Sources of Imbalance Germany (p. 4); France (p. 13); United Kingdom (p. 20); United States (p. 27); reserve creation in the monetary system (p. 33) II. Money, Credit and Capital Markets 37 Inflation and interest rates (p. 37); saving, investment and interest rates (p. 38); bank credit and liquid-asset formation (p. 41); domestic capital issues (p. 45); foreign and international bond issues (p. 47) : foreign issues (p. 48), international issues (p. 49) ; developments in individual countries: Canada (p. 52), Japan (p. 54), Italy (p. 56), Switzerland (p. 58), Austria (p. 59) > Belgium (p. 60), Netherlands (p. 62), Denmark (p. 63), Norway (p. 65), Sweden (p. 66), Finland (p. 68), Spain (p. 69), Portugal (p. 70); eastern Europe (p. 71): Soviet Union (p. 72), Czechoslovakia (p. 73)> Hungary (p. 73), eastern Germany (p. 74), Rumania (p. 74), Bulgaria (p. 74), Albania (p. 74), Poland (p. 74), Yugoslavia (p. 74) III. World Trade and Payments 76 World exports (p. 76); turnover of world trade, 1880-1968 (p. 77); exports and imports by areas (p. 78); balances of payments by areas (p. 79); changes in the pattern of capital movements (p. 80); balances of payments of western European countries (p. 85): EEC (p. 85), EFT A (p. 87), other western European countries (p. 87), Italy (p. 87), Belgium-Luxemburg Economic Union (p. 89), Netherlands (p. 91), Spain (p. 92), Greece (p. 93), Austria (p. 94), Switzerland (p. 94), Denmark (p. 95), Finland (p. 96), Sweden (p. 97), Norway (p. 98), Canada (p. 99), Japan (p. 101) IV. Gold, Reserves and Foreign Exchange 104 Gold production, markets and reserves (p. 104); International Monetary Fund (p. 110); official reserves and other monetary movements: United States (p. 113), United Kingdom (p. 115), Second Group Arrangement for sterling balances (p. 117), continental western Europe (p. 118), Germany (p. 121), Switzerland (p. 123), Italy (p. 124), Austria (p. 125), France (p. 125), Belgium (p. 126), Netherlands (p. 126), other European countries (p. 127), Canada (p. 127), Japan (p. 128); foreign ex- change markets (p. 128): sterling (p. 129), Deutsche Mark (p. 130), Swiss franc (p. 132), French franc (p. 133), lira (p. 135), other currencies: Belgian franc Page (p-135) > Dutch florin (p. 135), Austrian schilling (p. 136), Norwegian krone (p. 136), Swedish krona (p. 136), Danish krone (p. 136), Spanish peseta (p. 136), Portuguese escudo (p. 136), Canadian dollar (p. 136), Japanese yen (p. 136); other exchange developments (p. 137) V. The Euro-Currency Market 140 Total external positions (p. 142), geographical distribution (p. 145), net size of the Euro-dollar market (p. 147), interest rate developments (p. 151) VI. The European Monetary Agreement 157 Continuation of the Agreement (p. 157); operations under the Agreement: European Fund (p. 157), Multilateral System of Settlements (p. 159); Statement of Account (p. 161); management of the European Monetary Agreement (p. 162) VII. Activities of the Bank 164 Development of co-operation between central banks and international organisations (p. 164); operations of the Banking Department (p. 165): composition of resources (p. 166), employment of resources (p. 169); the Bank as Trustee and Fiscal Agent for international government loans (p. 172); the Bank as Depositary under the terms of the Act of Pledge concluded with the European Coal and Steel Community (p. 174) ; the Bank as Agent for the OECD (European Monetary Agreement) (p. 175) i net profits and their distribution (p. 175); adjustment of the Bank's capital and amend- ment of its Statutes (p. 176); changes in the Board of Directors and in the Manage- ment (p. 179) Conclusion 180 Balance sheet and Profit and Loss Account as at 31st March 1969. LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPHS (Graphs are indicated by an asterisk) Page I. Key Sources of Imbalance Germany: Changes in exports, imports and domestic and external demand * 9 Balance of payments 10 France: Balance of payments 17 United Kingdom: Balance of payments 24 The budget 26 United States: Federal budget 29 Balance of payments . 31 Changes in global reserves 34 Sources of changes in global reserves 35 II. Money, Credit and Capital Markets Changes in bond yields and domestic prices 38 Saving, investment and bond yields* 39 The banking system: Monetary survey 42 Official discount rates 45 Domestic capital markets: Net issues 46 Foreign and international bond issues . 48 International bond issues* 50 Yields on US dollar and DM bonds* 51 Japan: Changes in financial assets and liabilities 55 Sweden: Net credit flows 67 Eastern European economies: National income and industrial and agricultural production 73 III. World Trade and Payments International trade . 76 Turnover of world trade and world-trade prices* 77 Industrial countries : Growth of exports to different areas . 78 Balances of payments: Actual positions and changes 80 United States: Balance of private capital movements 81 Page Balances of payments : Western European countries 86 Italy 88 Belgium-Luxemburg Economic Union 90 Netherlands 92 Sweden 97 Canada 100 Japan 102 IV. Gold, Reserves and Foreign Exchange World gold production , 104 Sources and uses of gold . 105 Gold market prices * . ,. , . 106 World gold, reserves 108 International Monetary Fund: Drawings and repurchases in United States: External monetary movements 113 United Kingdom: External monetary movements 116 Continental European countries, Canada and Japan: External monetary positions 120 Germany: External monetary movements 122 France: External monetary movements . , 125 Dollar quotations for the pound sterling* 129 Deutsche Mark and Swiss franc quotations for the US dollar* 131 French franc and Italian lira quotations for the US dollar* 134 V. The Euro-Currency Market Commercial banks' short-term liabilities and assets in certain foreign currencies vis-à-vis non-residents * 141 Changes in the banks' external positions in certain foreign currencies 143 Dollar positions of European banks vis-à-vis non-residents 146 Estimated size of the Euro-dollar market 149 Rates of interest for dollars and Swiss francs on national markets and abroad* . 152 Banks' short-term liabilities and assets vis-à-vis non-residents 154 Commercial banks' short-term liabilities and assets in certain foreign currencies vis-à-vis non-residents 155 Commercial banks' short-term liabilities and assets in certain foreign ... currencies vis-à-vis non-residents, excluding positions vis-à-vis the country of issue of the currency in question . 156 VI. The European Monetary Agreement European Fund: Utilisation of credits granted 159 Multilateral System of Settlements: Payments made . 160 European Fund: Statement of Account 161 Page VII. Activities of the Bank Annual balance-sheet totals 165 Memorandum accounts 166 Liabilities * . 166 Composition of resources 167 Borrowed funds, by origin 168 Borrowed funds, by nature and term 168 Assets* 169 Gold position 170 Cash holdings and other investments 170 Time deposits and advances and other bills and securities 171 German External Loan 1924 (Dawes Loan) 173 German Government International Loan 1930 (Young Loan) 173 Austrian Government International Loan 1930 174 Secured loans of the European Coal and Steel Community 175 THIRTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT submitted to the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the BANK FOR INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS held in Basle on 9th June 1969. Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit herewith the Annual Report of the Bank for International Settlements for the thirty-ninth financial year, which began on ist April 1968 and ended on 31st March 1969. After deduction of the transfers to provisions, the net profit amounted, as last year, to 45,000,000 gold francs. The Board of Directors again recommends that, in application of Article 53 of the Bank's Statutes, the present General Meeting should allocate 15 million gold francs for the payment of the dividend, 15 million gold francs to the General Reserve Fund and 15 million gold francs to the Free Reserve Fund. If this recommendation is accepted, the dividend will remain unchanged at 75 gold francs and will be payable in Swiss francs in the amount of 107.15 Swiss francs per share. It will consist of the cumulative dividend of 6 per cent, and the maximum supplementary dividend of 6 per cent, provided for by the Bank's Statutes. Chapter I of this Report surveys developments in the four countries — Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States — to which the main sources of imbalance in 1968 can be traced. The next three chapters review developments in various countries in the field of credit, foreign payments, gold production, monetary reserves and foreign exchange. The — 2 — fifth chapter gives a survey of events in the Euro-currency market and the sixth a review of the operations of the European Monetary Agreement. Chapter VII concerns the Bank's rôle in promoting co-operation between central banks, its current activities and the functions it performs on behalf of the European Coal and Steel Community and as Trustee and Fiscal Agent for international loans. — 3 — I. KEY SOURCES OF IMBALANCE. The unpegging of the market price for gold by ending sales from official reserves in March 1968 effectively overcame one source of trouble in the international payments picture. The crisis atmosphere quickly evaporated and there was some prospect that a period of calm might prevail. But new difficulties arose, partly fortuitous, which produced major exchange crises during the past year. The main sources of imbalance have been in four countries — Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States — the developments in which are reviewed in this chapter. First, however, we may look at the conjuncture more broadly. Following upon the quite general pause or recession from the late months of 1966 to about the third quarter of 1967, a new cyclical expansion was well under way by the first quarter of 1968.