Publications
Partners
London - A new central bank in an independent Scotland would need big stockpiles of sterling if the country opted to adopt the pound without an agreement with the rest of the United Kingdom, Bank of England governor Mark Carney said on Wednesday.
He also said it was likely that economic borders would build up between an independent Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Little more than a week before Scotland votes on independence, Carney told members of Britain's parliament that a Scottish central bank might need sterling reserves equivalent to at least 25% of Scottish gross domestic product.
This estimate was based on the example of the Baltic states, which had relatively simple financial systems and whose economies were converging with those of the eurozone.
Hong Kong - which pegs its currency to the US dollar and has a complex financial system - had foreign reserves of more than 100% of GDP, Carney added.
The question of what currency an independent Scotland would use has become one of the main points of dispute between Scottish nationalists and Britain's main political parties.
The nationalist-led Scottish government says it wants to share the pound, and the Bank of England, with the rest of the UK if it wins the Sept. 18 referendum.
Britain's main political parties have ruled that out, prompting the nationalists to say they might adopt the pound without an agreement with London.
