Inflation check ‘must be held’

Press, 3 June 1983, Page 9

Inflation check ‘must be held’

The check on inflation now apparent because of the wage and price freeze must be held, the Mid-Can-terbury president of Federated Farmers, Mr A. J. Blair, said in his annual address. “While there has been a restriction on the price of wheat from the 1983 harvests and growers are incensed with what they see as a reversal of the spirit of intent of the pricing formula, the regulations governing the freeze are effctive in holding the level of inflation,” he said. Mr Blair said that with perishable exports New Zealand must look at being able to quit one year’s production before the following year’s production comes on the same market. “To this end we may have to accept the price the market offers.”

The Mid-Canterbury president said that he subscribed to the views of the director of the Meat and Wool Boards’ Economic Service, Mr N. W. Taylor. These were that undoubtedly the demand for our pastoral products would improve over the next few years as the northern hemisphere economies strengthened. The industry must be maintained intact to take advantage of the expected upturn. “I believe that the most important function in agriculture policies is the determining of the policies that will help the industries to survive until that upturn occurs, and the setting of ground rules that will apply as farming returns to a selfgenerated profit base,” said Mr Blair. “This is the most advantageous time to do this if

we are not in the next cyclical upturn of market returns to set the base for a repeat of the current traumas the industry is experiencing,” he concluded.