Commercial "Woolnews" comments on lower support

Press, 28 December 1977, Page 18

Commercial "Woolnews" comments on lower support

The lowering of the inter-, vention prices at the Tirnaru woolsale on December 7 started a round of comment,] with many attributing mo--, tives to the Wool Marketing! Corporation that were never! there. Pressure from the' New Zealand Government?! The possibility of devalua--tion? Charges of creating “uncertainty and confusion," says “Woolnews,” published by the New Zealand Wool Board. Some uncertainty is inevitable while the trade here and overseas probes to find

the corporation's new! support level (they had done’ that by Dunedin on the 12th I when the Corporation was| bidding on half the offering).! But in lowering its sights,l the corporation was merely! following estabilished policy,: which is not to create a' second-storey floor price, i but to give the market a degree of stability.

Whether that is short o long term depends on several things; the amount the corporation buys, the size of its funds and, most important, its assessment of

current and future demand. Its action on the 7th can have surprised very few. (And the acting Chairman, Mr John Clarke, denied even consulting with Government on the move), “Woolnews” says.