CREDIT BALANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 14, 16 July 1931, Page 16

CREDIT BALANCE

SIX MONTHS' TRADE

HEAVY FALL IN IMPORTS

"Evening Post," 16th July. fey courtesy, of the Customs external trade returns for the six months ended 30th June aro available. They plainly show the heavy drop in receipts from export* for the first half of this year, a dedhw of nearly £8,000,000 on the receipts for tb* corresponding period of 1930, but thereto also » heavy falling off in imDOrtt to ba taken into account, and amounting to over £9,600,000. Tht wrings effected by curtailed importi taken with the excess of exports, mate » total to the credit of the Dominion of £18,521,909. Th« returns for the six months of this year awj lft?t are as follows: — 1930. 1931 6 months. 6 months. ■•£.,.. &■ •Ebrootte .«*...... 29,780,691 21,784,976 Imports .7. 22,567,543 12,915,305 E**-«rportt .... 7,213,148 8,869,671 lor the past five years ended 30th June, the exports and imports compare as follows:— Exports. Imports. Yaax £ £ 1927 * 46,395,082 47,373,687 1928 55,619,285 43,497,942 192 0 56,244,750 46,508,009 1930 .......... 47 588,213 48,828,077 . 193! ..36,944,977 33,373,676 The twelve months ended 30th June, 1927, showed an excess of imports over exports of £978,605, replaced next year by an excess of exports amounting to £12,121,343; and for 1929 there was a balance to the good of £9,736,741. Then came the collapse of commodity prices, accompanied, or accelerated, by the Hatry smash in London and the crash in all values of investments, gilt-edged and speculative, in the New York Stock Exchange, at the end of 1929.' Therefore, at 30th June, 1930, the value of the Dominions exports fell by nearly £9,000,000 on those bf the previous .twelve months, whereas imports for' which traders were already committed were over £2,000,000 more—in nautical parlance they still had "way on in- the middle of last year. This twelve months they-have been reduced by nearly '£15,500,000. ■'.■' ■ ' There is still a large quantity of New Zealand produce to be shipped, including 9571 tons of butter and 8200 tons of cheese, now on a rising market. There _are 2,000,000 sheep and lambs in store in NewZealand that have yet to be disposed of: and an unascertained quantity of wool, all of which is the produce of the 1930-31 export season, and representing money. How much money the markets of to-day and of the immediate future must determine. , ■ . , ' The contraction in the yolume of imports Js explained by reduced purchasing power, high exchange, high Customs duties. But it also suggests that stocks must.be running very low, and shelves becoming pretty bare. '