TRADE RETURNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1937, Page 5

TRADE RETURNS.

EXPORT FIGURES. INCREASE, £10,000,000. IMPORTS RISE STEEPLY. Commodity exports for December showed an increase of £400.000 compared, with the figures for December, 1935, according to returns of overseas trade released by the Customs Department in Wellington yesterday. Caused chiefly by the high prices realised for wool at' the opening salee of the season, the rise makes the total for the month £207,000 greater than the figure for December, 1933, when wool also commanded high rates at the opening eales. Imports last December were £1,079,000 higher in value than for the corresponding month the year previous. A comparison of the returns for December in the last four years, of commodities only, in Xew Zealand currenciiy, follows:— * Excess of Exports. Imports. Exports. £ £ £ 1933 . . 4,115,000 2,211,000 1,904,000 1934 . . 2,593,000 2,731,000 198,000* 1935 . . 3,922,000 3,214.000 708,000 1936 .. 4,322,000 4,293,000 2!),000 •Excess of imports. Big Export Increase. An increase in the value of exports of £10,214,000, compared with the total for 1935, is shown in the returns for the calendar year. The total is by far the highest for the paet four years. The steady rise of import totak since 1933 k even more marked in 1930 than in the preceding two years. The total is £7,817,000 greater than in 1935, £12,794,000 above the figure for 1934, and £18,553,000 greater than 1933. A summary of the returne for the past four calendar years follows:— Excess of Exports. Imports. Exports. £ £ £ 1933 . 41,006,000 25,581,000 15,425,000 1934 . 47,343,000 31,340.000 16,003,000 1935 . 46,538.000 36,317,000 10,221,000 1836 . 56,752,000 44,134,000 12,618,000 Exports for the firet six months of the production year, which opens in July, are valued at £3,902,000 more than for the corresponding period of the year before. In the valuation of imports there has been an even greater rise^—£4.7o3.ooo greater than in the first half of the 1935-30 production season. Consequently the apparent adverse commodity balance has increased by £1,611,000. Figures for Four Years. Figures for this period, compared with those in the preceding three years, arc: — Excess of July- Exports. Imports. Imports. Dec. £ £ S, 1933 . 17,644,000 12.947.000 4.097,000* 1934 . 15,844,000 17.583.000 1.739,000 1935 . . 19.429.000 19.570.000 141 000 1936 . 22,521.000 24,273.000 1,702,000 •Excess of exports. There were no exports of specie during December, but imports were valued at £10,557. For the 12 months, ended December, 1936. the exports were valued at £45,245, and the imports at £3U,G01.