Agency advances fail 3.9 per cent

Press, 27 June 1983, Page 25

Agency advances fail 3.9 per cent

Private sector credit grew 0.4 per cent in May after allowing for seasonal influences, according to Reserve Bank statistics. This represents a slightly lower movement than the 0.8 per cent growth registered in April, and brings the latest annual percentage change to 4.4 per cent. The growth in the broad money measure, M 3, continued to decline and, in seasonally adjusted terms, represented a decline of 1.1 per cent in May. After a period of rapid increase until January, there has been a steady decline during the last four

months. M 3 has grown 6.2 per cent during the year to May. After an upturn in the annual rate of growth of Ml in April this narrowlydefined money aggregate also showed an easing annual percentage change in May of 5.3 per cent. Stock and station agents’ advances to farmers in the March quarter of 1983, at $414 million, showed a decline during the year of 3.9 per cent. This comes after a similar, but somewhat smaller, decline in the December quarter. Total selected assets of the companies amounted to $5lO million, down 3.2 per cent from a year earlier while total selected liabilities, at $355 million, were 7.0 per cent lower. The level of activity on the Stock Exchange eased a little during the week to an average daily turnover of 1.8 million shares compared

with 2.1 million in the previous week. The Reserve Bank’s all groups share price index stood at 3360 on June 23 (base: January 18. 1968 equals 1000), 1.8 per cent above the level a month earlier but this represents a 31.8 per cent increase from a year ago. A slowdown has been evident in the rate of increase in the indices for a number of sectoral groups, with declines in the group associated with farming, textiles and clothing, and in the building and construction group during the past month. In particular, the building and construction group has been weakening in recent weeks, with an 8.4 per cent decline over the month. This sector has also shown the smallest index rise during the year, 7.3 per cent.