Blow to Carter

Press, 4 November 1978, Page 8

Blow to Carter

NZPA-Reuter New York I 1 President Jimmy Carter’s [hopes for an early slowdown lin inflation have been jolted Iby new wholesale price [figures that showed a steep ■ increase. The President, on an election campaign tour in New York, told a Wall Street :[ ’-ally;. “We are going to have “some high inflation before [we turn the corner and get I it under control.” ’[ Wholesale price figures, [released only a day after Mr [Carter announced a series of - moves to bolster the dollar, showed that basic prices * I rose at a high 0.9 per cent 'lin October for the second > I month in a row. ■i These figures usually show II up as even steeper rises in : I retail store prices in the 1 month ahead.

Mr Carter, on a coast-to-coast tour to get support for his party’s candidates in a Congressional election on Tuesday, cautioned the New York crowd against expecting instant results from his anti-inflation programme The dollar’s rise slowed yesterday and stocks were mostly lower after running up impressive gains the day before. Traders were apparently pulling back to assess the effects of President Carter s bold moves to support the dollar. The measures included a rise in the Federal discount (bankl rate to a record 9.5 per cent, and the allocation of millions of dollars to help buy up excess dollars abroad.