EXCHANGE RATE

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 221, 14 June 1932, Page 10

EXCHANGE RATE

No State Interference MATTER FOR BANKS Prime Minister’s Assurance EXPIRING REGULATIONS By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, June 13. 1 “The Government has not interfered with tlie exchange rate, and does not intend to do so,” said the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W, Forbes, in a telephone conversation from his home in Cheviot to-night. Mr. Forbes was asked what the Government expected would happen to tlie exchange rate when the regulations under the exchange credits pool are relaxed at the end of this month.

' Mr. Forbes’s attention was also drawn to the suggestion by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce that the Government should take steps to preserve the existing rate between New Zealand and London until the question of an Empire managed currency had been discussed at Ottawa. “We have never interfered in the question of exchange,” said Mr. Forbes. “The present exchange has been fixed by the banks, and I take it that it will still be maintained by the banks when the regulations are withdrawn. It is not the Government’s function to fix exchange rates, and the banks will continue to be responsible.” Mr. Forbes said that when the exchange credits pool was first formed a definite undertaking was given that when the Government’s requirements for its commitments in London were met the regulations would be withdrawn. The Government was simply giving effect to this undertaking at the end of June. The question of exchange did ont come into the matter since the original Order-in-Council was not for the purpose of controlling the exchange rate.