DOMINION’S TRADE

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 69, 15 December 1931, Page 10

DOMINION’S TRADE

Great Drop in Imports EXPORT VALUES LOW x Large Visible Balance The abnormal conditions prevailing in the Dominion’s overseas trade are again shown in the returns for November, issued yesterday by the Customs Department. The drastic contraction of imports, which has curtailed several overseas shipping services, and is forcing owners to bring ships out from Britain only partly loaded or wholly empty, is again shown in the figures.. The spring and early summer months are normally a period of fairly heavy importations, but this year the values of imports are remarkably low. / The imports last month were valued at a little over £2,000,000, which is more than £778,000 less than for November last year and little more than one-half the figure for November, 1929. Indeed, last month’s imports were lower in value than in any November for the last ten or twelve years. On' the other hand, the declared value of exports last month was £415,727 greater than for November, 1930. This, however, might be accounted for by one shipment of goods. In any case, last month’s exports, valued at £2,853,814, have been exceeded in value by only three Novembers (1925,1928,and 1929) in the last ten years. The figures afford the following comparison:—

Eleven Months’ Showing. The figures for the eleven months ended November 30 afford a truer perspective of the tendencies of the Dominion’s overseas trade. They show that the curtailment of imports, which has been progressively greater in recent months, has produced a decline of over £16,858,000, which provides a very big set-off against the heavy fall of over £10,000,000 in the declared value of exports for the period as compared with last year. The figures are set out in the following comparative table:—

2,003,236 8,795,544 *6,702,308 •Increase. It will be seen that the visible favourable balance for the 11 months at £8,795,000 is over £6,700,000 greater than for the corresponding period of last year. This has to be qualified by the reminder of the Customs Department that “the values shown for exports are the declared f.o.b. values in terms of New Zealand currency, while imports are valued on the basis of values in the exporting countries plus 10 per cent.” If the export values are converted to sterling, however, the visible favourable balance is still very much ahead of that of last year. The following I ble gives a comparison of the overseas trade figures for the eleven months’ period for the last ten years:—

The table illustrates clearly the great shrinkage in value of the Dominion’s overseas trade, exports and imports to November 30 this year being by far the lowest recorded for the last ten years.

Exports Imports Nov., 1930 £ 2,304,543 2,837,826 Nov., 1031 £ 2,810,270 2,050,040 Increase or Decrease. £ 415,727 •778,786 Excess of exports —. 751,230 Excess of imports 443,283 — •Decrease.

11 mos., 11 mos., 1930 1931 Decrease. £ £ £ Exports . . 41,971,188 31,814,844 10,156,344 Imports . . 39,877,932 23,019,300 16,858,652

Excess of Exports. i Imports. exports. £ ' £ £ . 1922 . . 39,149,972 31,508,426 7,641,546 1923 . . 42,242,049 39,786,241 44.017,787 2,455,808 1924 . . 49,701,232 2,683,475 1935 . . 50,348,784' 47.814.656 2,834,128 1923 . . 41,643,877 45,501,467 •3,857.500 1927 . . 43,097,870 40,833,748 2,264,122 1928 . . 51,805,163 41,463,657 10,341,506 1929 . . 51,012.893 44,813,738 6,199,155 1939 . . 41,971.188 39,877,952 2.093,236 1931 . . 31.814.844 23.019.300 8,795,544 •Excess of Imports.