TRADE IN MAY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19975, 9 July 1930, Page 14

TRADE IN MAY.

OFFICIAL REVIEW. The June issue of the Abstract of Statistics states that although the declared value of exports for the month of May shows an increase of £496,000 over May, 1929, the total is not high, being, in fact, £129,750 below the average for May for the five preceding years. May exports also Bhow an advance over April, which is exceptional, and is due to considerable increases in the quantity of butter, cheese, frozen lamb, and apples sent forward, and to a particularly low total of exports being recorded for April as compared with the average for that month. The cumulative figure reveals what an effect decreasing prices have on the value of exports, the aggregate for the five months ended May, 1930, showing a decrease of £7,590,000 from that for the corresponding period of 1929. Wool is the main contributor to this huge decline, being down £6,900,000, while butter decreased £580,000, and cheeße £620,000. The quantity of wool exported during May is above the average for that month, but the five-monthly total is 17.5 per cent, below the average recorded for this period for the five preceding years. The totals to the end of May also show that the quantity of butter increased 9.5 per ovnt., and the value decreased 8.3 per cent., while the declared value per hundredweight decreased 16.4 per cent., as compared with last year. Cheese declined 10.2 per cent., and 15.9 per cent, respectively in quantity and value, but the decrease per hundred weight is only 6.5 per cent.

The total of imports for May shows a slight decline from April, but Is £160,000 ahead of that for May of last year. Compared with the average value for May for the five preceding years, there is a recession of £160,000. The cumulative figure for the five months is only just above that for the same. five months of 1929, but is £460,000 below the five-yearly average for the period. The excess of exports for the five months is £6,875,000, against an average excess of £11,500,000. The twelve-monthly totals to May show an excess of imports of £864,000 for 1930, compared with an excess of exports of £9,119,000 for 1929.

RETAIL PRICES.

THE MAY INDEX. The Juno issue of the Abstract of Statistics states that the retail-price index (Dominion weighted average) for the three food groups as at May 15th was 1542 (on the base—average priees in the four centres during the years 1909-13, equalling 1000), an increase of "two points as compared with that for the previous month, and an increase of 43.9 per cent, over that for July, 1914. The index number for the groceries group has increased by 16 points as compared with the April index. Among individual items bread has increased in price in one of the major centres, potatoes and onions have fluctuated in price, increases being recorded in some towns and. decreases in others, while sugar shows a slight all-round decrease. The dairy-products index number shows an upward movement of 24 points. The usual seasonal increase in the price of eggs coupled with a rise in the price of milk in one of the larger towns has caused this increase. Meat prices continue to show a falling tendency—the May index being 30 points lower than that for April. Expenditure on food constitutes somewhat less than two-fifths of the expenditure of an average household* In order to present a more complete picture of movements in retail prices generally, statistics regarding the retail prices of clothing, drapery, and footwear, and of miscellaneous items of family expenditure, are collected at quarterly intervals, and when combined with the indexes for food, rent, and fuel and light approximately 87 per cent, of the average household expenditure is represented. The May food and fuel and .light, clothing, drapery, footwear, and miscellaneous index numbers, combined with the Fobruary rent index, give an all-groups index 58.5 per cent, above the July, 1914, level, so that it now takes £1 lis 7d, on the average, to purchase what could have been purchased for £1 in that month. The May index number for the clothing, drapery, and footwear group is 14 points lower than the February index. A slight increase (4 points) is recorded in tho miscellaneous group, a minor increase in the furnishing subgroup being responsible for this upward movemont. TALLOW STOCKS. (COTTSD P3ESB ASSOCIATION—BT BLBCTIIO TELEOEAPH—COPTEIOHT.) LONDON, July 7. Tallow stocks are 2689 casks, imports 1581. and deliveriea 87! V