Recovery rate slower — banker

Press, 21 December 1977, Page 21

Recovery rate slower — banker

Wellington reporter World economic recovery would be slower than might have been expected a year ago and New Zealand had to depend on its own efforts to solve its own problems, said the general manager of the National Bank (Mr S. T. Russell). Recovery depended on a small number of strong economies, including the United States, Japan and West Germany, and they were deeply concerned about containing the rate of inflation.

As a result, they were cautious about expanding their economies if there was any

danger that they would stimulate inflation by doing so. New Zealand could not look to increased business activity overseas to produce a greater demand for its exports or an increase in the prices it received for them. It had to work its own way out of its difficulties. Scarce resources had to be allocated to export industries and funds available for investment had to be increased by stimulating savings. It had to be universally accepted that every hour of production lost or, in particular, every export opportunity lost set back New Zealand’s economic recovery.