	u k profitted from autumn intervention lawson britain has reaped profits by using a stronger pound to buy back dollars used by the government last autumn to support sterling during a currency crisis chancellor of the exchequer nigel lawson said he said in a parliamentary debate i can now tell the house of commons that the dollars that were sold from the reserves in september and october have subsequently all been repurchased at a profit of some tens of millions of pounds hindsight had proved him right to resist market pressures then for a two percentage point interest rate rise he said the increase in base rates was instead limited then to one point during a debate on the british budget which lawson unveiled last week he said that during the period of foreign exchange market turbulence which followed the somewhat inconclusive group of five and group of seven meetings at the end of september i authorised the bank of england to intervene unusually heavily in order to buy breathing space that would enable me to confine the interest rate rise to one pct rather than the two pct the market was then pressing for he said that that one percentage point increase effected in october had been reversed by this month s two half point cuts in banks base lending rates they are now at pct treasury figures show that the underlying change in british reserves seen as a guide to possible bank of england intervention on foreign exchange markets suggest that the authorities sold around billion dlrs during september and october government sources said reuter 
