N.Z. ECONOMIC PROGRESS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27752, 1 September 1955, Page 16

N.Z. ECONOMIC PROGRESS

“MUST SLOW DOWN TO CONSOLIDATE ” MR E. C. FUSSELL WARNS MANUFACTURERS (s™ Zealand Preus Assuciation t I WELLINGTON, August 31. “As a community we are impatient at the thought of having to slow down, but slow down we must until we consolidate our economic position,” the Governor of the Reserve Bank (Mr E. C. Fussell) told the Wellington Manufacturers’ Association last night The people were engrossed with visions of greater and greater prosperity, he said, and were full of confidence that the monetary demand for goods and services could be maintained I on an ever-increasing scale. "We set a high store on leisure,” said Mr Fussell. “Leisure can be divided into two parts—first, the normal amount required, and, second, additional free time for the enjoyment of life.” Not many people thought of toe fact that this extra time was not "costless leisure,” he said. It had to be paid for by less goods and services than would otherwise be the case. The cure for over-full employment was inseparable from the cure for inflation, Mr Fussell said. The damping down of a too-exuberant. consumer demand was the first essential To a large extent this would be done by monetary action and that was, in fact, being progressively done. More was needed than monetary restraints, however. There was a need for selfimposed restraints by industrialists and traders in their plans for expansion, and by the consuming public in their Mr Fussell said the present position was also marked by a monetary demand for goods and services, including imports, in greater quantities than could be fully supplied at current prices. “All this may seem an austere picture of the present position in New Zealand, but ft need not be regarded as discouraging in any way. because it is a situation that is being steadily coped with, but still with some way to go. "The goal we are aiming at is a good one, and we are entitled to feel encouraged because we are heading towards iv That goal is a high level of economic activity, a high general level of availability of consumer goods, but with the vital stipulation that it must not be more than we can provide for ourselves or afford to buy from other countries.”