IMPORTS UP SLIGHTLY

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30811, 24 July 1965, Page 23

IMPORTS UP SLIGHTLY

3.6 p.c. Lift To £353.9m Imports for the year ended June, 1965, rose only £12.3m or 3.6 per cent to £353.9m, c.i.f., according to provisional figures released by the Government Statistician (Mr J. V. T. Baker). Largest increase was by the chemicals group which rose £5. Im to £34.2m while a drop in sugar prices was mainly responsible for the £6.9m reduction to £21.6m of the food and live animals group. Machinery and transport equipment, which comprise more than a third of total imports, rose £B.lm while manufactured goods increased £3.Bm to £45.4m. Domestic Value The domestic cost value of imports is set provisionally at £324.8m or £ll.lm higher than 1963-64. All figures refer to values of goods arriving in New Zealand. Payment in overseas exchange is recorded separately by the Reserve Bank. Provisional totals of each group, with the 1963-64 figures in parenthesis, are:— Machinery other than electric, £45.4m cj.f. (£41.6m); textile yarn, fabric, made-up articles and related products, £37.3m (£37.1m); road vehicles, £38.3m (£37.7m): chemicals, £34.2m (£29.1m); iron and steel, £29.4m (£27.1m); crude petroleum and products, £2Bm (£28.9m); electrical machinery, apparaus and appliances, £25.2m (£23.9m); crude materials, inedible, except fuels, £22.3m (£19.7m); food and live animals, £21.6m (£28.5m); other, £72.2m (£6Bm); total, £353.9m (£341.6m).