Commonwealth trade declines

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 14

Commonwealth trade declines

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) LONDON, February 6. Trade among Commonwealth countries continued to decline gradually during 1972, according to figures released in London by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

In “World Irade 1972,” (he secretariat reveals that the proportion of total trade of Commonwealth countries conducted With oilier Commonwealth countries was 21 per cent during 1971. It had | been just over 25 per cent five years preI viously. The report statistically | covers Commonwealth trade 'in the five years up to the ipoint of Britain’s entry into the European Economic Com munity, and shows that the share of Commonwealth countries in British imports fell from 32 per cent in 196 C ’to 19 per cent in 1972. Developing Commonwealth j countries experienced ,s Igreater fall in their share ( than the developed countries In most tables New Zea ’land’s trade figures, appar ently available only for the June 30 year, are estimatec ■and lumped in with “othei —a solution the ’compilers also found neces ;sary with some statistic: from Bangladesh and Sr ' Lanka. Therefore it is impossible |to extract figures which com ’pare New Zealand’s trading ’pattern with that of othei

Commonwealth countries during 1972. The report shows that ■ over-all the recovery in world ■ economic activity in 1972, from a relatively depressed level the previous year, was the chief factor in promoting a substantial upturn in the i growth of world exports— i from 10 per cent to about 15 per cent as measured in ster- ; ling. The value of Common- ; 'wealth exports, however, was estimated to have risen at a ;slower rate—from 8.5 peri (cent to 11 per cent. __!