COMMODITY PRICE CHANGES

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27603, 9 March 1955, Page 15

COMMODITY PRICE CHANGES

EFFECTS ON DOLLAR TRADE A new commodity “price-consciousness” is reported by "The Times,” London. Changes in the prices of the chief import and export commodities are now being studied, because of the continuing pressure on sterling, with calculating eyes on how they are likely to affect the dollar needs and dollar earnings of the sterling area. On the whole, says “The Times,” the prices of dollar commodities, which looked like becoming so much dearer during the autumn, have levelled off recently; and the quotations of a number of key sterling comm dities—including tin, sisal, and wool—have improved. Although the dollar requirements for imports of several commodities must be expected to be greater, as in the case of wheat, because of the need for a greater weight of imports, sterling area dollar earnings may well yield on present price relationships an increased command over such imports. Sisal prices, for example, which are now moving u,p, dropped on balance by nearly a quarter, and raw wool by nearly 12J per cent, last year. But the Board of Trade’s latest review of wholesale price changes is a sufficient reminder that the month-to-month pattern of prices can be very irregular. The 6 rices of raw wool, hides, and skins, ruber, and copper all changed their direction more than once during 1954, with a marked effect—especially in the case of wool—on the board’s index of prices of basic materials.

It is recorded that, after falling 15 per cent between December, 1951, and December, 1952, and 7 j per cent, between December, 1952, and December, 1953, prices of basic materials (sterling and dollar) 1954 by nearly 3i P® r cent. to December.

But the influence on prices were not all pulling together. At different times the affected *>y the increased tempo of European production, the stockcf ♦ non - f errous metals by the S^ ates ’ reduced Russian purchases TT«H 4 2?V^ crc £fS d su PP, lies of native and Xrt t< Sn?fS e c?l <les ’ strlke » ln the Chilean and United States copper mines, and increased purchases of natural rubber. Moreover, the fact that material prices th? S eiJd S Jrf t S e ® nd of and 1954I 954 may have been less signl?Sti?ri i n«r d S e r nl / nln £ F 1? trend ° £ manU ’ facturing costs (certainly so far as the d^ng 1954 > th?n that, over the year as a whole nrices i a n e i9s3 ed a g °° d U Per Cent - J ™o r tl£S k Although raw rubber rose, for example, by as much as 45 per cent, between Dp?v I ?^ er and B ecem ber, it averaged slightly less per lb over the year than in 1953 For copper, too, a December tS &cemhn«nrise m ? re than 20 per cent went hand in hand with a drop inaveraee price over the year. average