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The Pound in Post-War Britain — 1945 to 1976
Inflation and the IMF
Six steps, about nine minutes, one question at each. You need no economics and no preparation, only a willingness to guess before you are told.
Step 1 of 6
Britain gave up publishing a price for the pound in June 1972, held pay instead, tied wages to prices by law two days before the oil price took off, and spent the winter of 1973 on three days of electricity.
The question
This is where the thing that limits a British government stops being the reserves and becomes the price level. Four institutions publish four different peaks for 1975 and all four are correct.
It ends on the number the Thatcher years open on, and on the weakest evidence anywhere here: one institution, disagreeing with itself.
What this module covers
Written for every level. Tap any underlined word for what it means, and open the boxes below for the economics behind each decision. If you already know the theory, skip both and the history reads straight through.
Ask four institutions how bad the worst year was and you get four answers. This is that year.
Prices in Britain rose faster in 1975 than in any year before or since, and the institutions that measure it publish four different figures for how fast.
The four figures answer four questions. Two are annual averages and measure the whole of 1975. One is quarterly and measures the three worst months. One is monthly and measures the single worst month, on an older index that behaves differently from the one used now. One source states the bridge outright: 27% on the older index is “equivalent to a 25% rate on a modern consumer price index (CPI) basis”. None of the four is wrong. For the run of years around it: 9.2% in 1973, 16.0% in 1974, then the peak, then 16.5% in 1976, 15.8% in 1977 and 8.3% in 1978. Before all of it, 7.1% in 1972.
Put it another way. Think of it like asking how fast a car went: its average over the journey, its average over the worst hour, and its reading at the single worst moment are three true answers to three questions.
Annual averages give two of the four, one is quarterly and one is monthly, and the monthly one uses an older index. They are answers to four different questions.
The single worst month was August 1975, and the years around the peak ran 16.0% in 1974, then 16.5% in 1976 and 15.8% in 1977.
Take a guess. You are not expected to know the answers, and being wrong is what makes a number stick.
The Office for National Statistics measures it as an average across the whole of 1975. On that measure, how fast were prices rising?
For scaleThe other three: 24.2% from a parliamentary library, about 25% from the Bank of England for the third quarter, and 27% on the older monthly index in August.
On 21 July 1975 the Chancellor told the Commons the would be a flat sum of money rather than a percentage.
A percentage gives most to whoever already earns most. A flat sum gives the same cash whatever the wage, so it raises low pay relative to high pay while holding the total down.
Healey's words: “the limit should be expressed in terms of £6 a week to full-time adult workers up to a cut-off point”.
This is the fourth attempt at holding pay in fourteen years, and the first that gave up on percentages entirely.
The government and the unions agreed on the cut-off point in principle and not on where it should sit. Where did the government want it, a year?
For scaleThe unions had wanted the cut-off lower, so that the limit reached less far up the income scale.
A Chancellor once went on television to explain that the pound had been cut. This time there was nothing to explain and not one minister whose job it was.
The pound fell further across 1976 than it had been cut in 1967, and no minister announced it.
A currency with no published price cannot be devalued, because there is no promise to break. It arrives at a lower number in March or September, and no minister owes the House a statement.
Chatham House dates the fall to the seven months from March 1976 to the end of September, when the Labour Party conference began.
The pound had been $2.40 after the 1967 devaluation and $2.00 in March 1976. What was it by that autumn?
For scaleThe 1967 devaluation, which took a Saturday-night statement and a broadcast to the nation, moved the pound from $2.80 to $2.40.
That was module 6 of 6, the last in The Pound in Post-War Britain — 1945 to 1976
Your score will appear here.
[1] One of the four peaks: Office for National Statistics, Changes in the economy since the 1970s.
[2] Three more of the figures, including the last one: House of Lords Library, The UK economy in the 1970s.
[3] The central bank's own peak: Bank of England, on inflation in 1975.
[4] The highest of the four, and the bridge between them: CEPR, 25% inflation, 50 years on.
[5] Percentages replaced by a sum of money: Hansard, Commons, 21 July 1975, Attack on Inflation.
[6] What the Chancellor told the Commons: Hansard, Commons, 21 December 1976, Economic Situation.
[7] The lender's own record, opened at last: International Monetary Fund, History of Lending Commitments: United Kingdom.
[8] The December agreement, and the pound before it: Chatham House, Britain's big bailout: December 15 1976.
Country data from the World Bank (CC BY 4.0) and the UNDP Human Development Report (CC BY 3.0 IGO)
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