Export woes blamed on currency speculation

Press, 12 June 1986, Page 11

Export woes blamed on currency speculation

PA Wellington Speculative trading in currency is ruining New Zealand’s export markets, says the Opposition finance spokesman on expenditure, Mr Michael Cox. “Trading of cash as a commodity has pushed up the exchange rates to such an extent that the real economy of New Zealand, the pastoral and manufacturing economy, now finds it almost impossible to export profitably,” he told Newmarket Rotary.

Trading in money last year amounted to $9OO billion, and only $45 billion of that was for normal trade and payment of invisibles. “That means that 95 per cent of the dollars that crossed New Zealand’s borders were of a speculative nature. “These massive amounts of this new commodity being traded have isolated the main metropolitan centres from the rest of New Zealand,” said Mr Cox. On the day it was an-

nounced that dairy products would earn $6OO million less next year, the value of the New Zealand dollar in the United States had barely wavered, he said.

Money trading produced a very small number. of highly paid jobs, whereas manufacturing and agriculture provided a large part of New Zealand’s economic structure. Small towns such as Balclutha, Feilding, Inglewood, Hastings, and Blenheim would not be able to survive in the new trading atmosphere, said Mr Cox.