ITALY ANNOUCES DEVALUED LIRA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 237, 6 October 1936, Page 7

ITALY ANNOUCES DEVALUED LIRA.

KEEPING CHANGES. Compulsory Loan to Pay for Abyssinia War. HEAVY taxes imposed. United Tress Association.—Copyright. (Received 11 a.m.) ROME, October 5. Mussolini has announced the revaluation of the lira at 92 to the pound and 19 to the dollar. The previous par value of the lira was 92.46 to the pound, and it was last quoted on September 28 at 64g. The devaluation is of approximately 40 per cent of gold content of the lira at 4.677 grammes for every 100, com- i pared witli 7.91. Sicrnor Mussolini's announcement was made after a Cabinet meeting, and a communique announces wholesale reductions of Customs duties on primary necessaries, including foodstuffs and coal. It adds that in order to prevent an increase in the cost of living, prices of certain articles will be established at their present level, and fluctuations in others will be rigorously controlled in relation to world prices. Import duty on wheat has been reduced from 75 to 45 lire a quintal, and duties on frozen meat and live cattle are reduced respectively by 05 and 00 per cent. Economic Self-Sufficiency. A communique announces that there ■will be no changes in bank notes or currency at present in circulation. Additional taxes will be imposed on companies, with the exception of colonial ones. A policy aiming at maximum economic eelf-suffifiency will be continued as essential to "military requirements and national defence. Financial measures include practically a compulsory loan to which owners of fixed property will subscribe to an extent of 5 per cent of the value of their property. Tliey will also pay a special annual tax of 3.50 lire on every 1000 lire worth of property possessed. Thus owners will be forced to buy honds and then will be taxed in order to pay themselves interest oil them. The editor of "Giornale cl'ltalia," Signor Gavda, describes the objects of the loan as being to balance the Budget without disturbing the money market with another State loan and to pay for the Abyssinian war. PROJECT DROPPED. OPTION IN ABYSSINIA. (Received 2 p.m.) LONDON, October 5. Mr. Leo Chertok, who last year secured a million-dollar option in Abyssinia on behalf of British and American interests, is giving up the concession, his reason being that Italy is now governing the country. POLAND DECIDES. WILL NOT DEVALUATE. (Received 12 noon.) WARSAW, October 5. Cabinet decided that it was not necessary for Poland to devaluate its currency.