TRADE IN EUROPE

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 26

TRADE IN EUROPE

Big E.F.T.A. Increase (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— -Copyright) GENEVA, September 28. A revival in British production played a major role in a 3.7 per cent jump in the combined gross national product of the seven European Free Trade Association countries during 1963-64. The rise was double that of the previous year, and the period brought “continued, and even increased, prosperity to Western Europe," the fourth annual report of the association says. Mid-1963 was a turning point for several E.F.T.A. countries, including Britain, and because British production accounted for more than half the E.F.T.A. total, the British revival had “transformed the annual economic growth rate for the group as ■a whole.”

European Free Trade Association commodity exports to the rest of the world (including intra-E.F.T.A. trade) rose by 8.2 per cent over 1962-63 to reach a value of 23,294 million dollars. This was a 1.4 per cent higher growth rate than the annual E.F.T.A. average since 1959.

At the same time total E.F.T.A. commodity imports from the rest of the world jumped by 6.8 per cent to a value of 27,584 million dollars.