Devaluation claims denied

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34099, 11 March 1976, Page 1

Devaluation claims denied

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 10. Both Government and Opposition spokesmen scoffed at the claims made by the London financial journal, the “International Currency Review,” about devaluation of the New Zealand dollar. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) rejected the claims made by the journal that the economy was becoming unmanageable. At a press conference in Rotorua today, he said that the economy had become “rather more manageable than it was three months ago” He would not use the term “unmanageable,” although the situation was serious, he said. Overseas prices for the country’s farm exports were increasing. Mr Muldoon said he had

not sought any financial aid from Australia in his summit talks with Australia’s Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser). The Opposition spokesman on Finance (Mr R. J. Tizard) said that he regarded many of the magazine’s claims as “arrant nonsense.” and added that he had never heard of the journal. The devaluation claims were described bv a Government source as “absolute rubbish.” The Government source said there were about 300 financial reviews in circulation and he could not be sure he had heard of the “International Currency Review.” Mr Tizard said devaluation was possible “if the Government goes on talking the way it is,” but he thought it could easily be avoided.