TRADE BALANCE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 217, 11 June 1935, Page 10

TRADE BALANCE

Excess of Exports Shrinking COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES The cumulative excess of exports during the expired ten months of the current exporting season amounts to only £6,500,000 as compared with £18,500,000 for the corresponding portion of the preceding year, reports the Government Statistician. The excess for the twelve months ending with June will probably be insufficient to balance excess of payments on account of invisible items, so that the large balance on New Zealand account which has accumulated in London will require to be drawn on. Signs of the approach of the slack season of the year are evident in statistics illustrating business activity in the month of April. I'he value of exports shows a sharp drop fiom £6,131,361 in March to £3,895.787 in April. Shipments of butter, wool, and apples are markedly lower than in April of last year, while exports of beef and lamb were also lower, though not to the same extent. Pork and mutton were exported in greater quantities than in April, 1934. All major exports are considerably less in volume than in March— normally the peak month of the year. The average weekly value of bank debits to individual customers’, accounts (excluding Government) during April was £13,792,505. a decrease of £1,857,467, or 11.9 per cent., as compared with the figure for the preceding month. Bank debits during the month of April normally show a considerable slackening as compared with March, for seasonal factors usually affect the position in April. The total amount of funds on deposit with the trading banks was, on the average, £62.398.925 during April; increases in both current and time deposits being shown as compared with corresponding figures for the previous month. The ratio of free to fixed deposits increased from 67.37 per cent, in March to 68.28 per cent, in April, The relationship between free and fixed deposits has undergone a substantial change during the past twelve months, free deposits being £1,900.000 higher and 'fixed deposits £3.400,000 lower than in April of last year, when tne ratio between the two classes was 57.81 per cent -• The total amount of outstanding advances increased by £539,498, or 1.2 per cent, over the average amount during the previous month, the ratio of advances to deposits improving slightly —from 69.92 per cent, to 70.31 per cent Mortgages and Laud Transfers. Mortgage registrations and landtransfer transactions are normally relatively low in April, owing to the Easter legal vacation. The number of mortgages registered in April was 1284, the amount being £1,027,186, as compared with 1470 mortgages of a total value of £1,192,237 in the previous month. , Some improvement in the tone of the mortgage market is evident from a comparison of the figures for April of this year with the corresponding totals for that month in the three preceding years, when the amounts were—l 932, £850,882; 1933, £396,085: and 1934, £615,207. Land transfers registered in April numbered 1518, the total consideration amounting to £1)153,818, a decrease in number, but au increase in amount, over the figures for the previous month. Corresponding total amounts for April of the two previous years were—l 933, £499,902 ; and 1934, £820,040. . The total amount of sales tax collected in April was £191.607, as compared with £179.568 in the preceding month and £168,313 in April of last year. Returns from this tax indicate an increasing volume of wholesale sales. Lower Wool Returns. The 1934-35 New Zealand wool-selling season closed in April, the total realisations at sales held during the season being reported by the N.Z. Wool Committee as £4,366,442. as compared with £10,083,232 in the 1933-34 selling season. Tlie average price per pound dropped from 11.322 d. to C.519d., while the weight of wool sold was only 160,800, 0001 b., as against 213,700.0001 b, in the previous season. The production of woo! in New-Zea-land for the 1934-35 season is estimated at 292,000,0001 b. in the grease, while exports (including wool pu skins) since July last have totalled 158,000.0001 b. on a greasy basis. Present indications therefore point to an increase of some magnitude in stocks at present being held in the Dominion as compared with the position at the end of last selling season. Building Activity. The value represented by building permits issued in the larger towns in April was £537,172, an increase of £205.096 over the figure for the previous month, Normally April is one of the low months of the year, owing to the break in the working month caused by the Easter holiday period : but. on this occasion, the inclusion of one large building in Wellington valued ar approximately £250.000 (tlie new Government Insurance Building now in course of construction) lias swelled the April total. Permits issued for now dwellings totalled 204 (value. £135.895) as compared with 225 (value, £165.428) in Marc-fl.