BRITAIN’S DOLLAR ASSETS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 9, 5 October 1940, Page 12

BRITAIN’S DOLLAR ASSETS

•Effect Of Gold Output (British Official Wireless.) (Received October 4. 7.5 p.m.) RUGBY, October 3. So far Britain has dipped only lightly into her reserves of assets convertible into dollars, according to the monthly bulletin of the National City Bank of New York. Only a comparatively small part of the £1,250,000,000 of liquid dollar assets and gold held at the beginning of the war has been paid out. The ability of the Empire to finance heavy purchases in the United States has not yet been strained. The most striking fact revealed by an examination of the figures is that the Empire's output of newly-mined gold, amounting to more than £187,000,000 during the first, year of the war, would more than offset the Empire’s unfavourable balance on merchandise trade in the same

period. A reduction of £120.000,000 in the dollar In.lances and security holdings in the first 10 months of the war is probably evidence that the merchandise trade balance substantially understates British payments made in the United States. Nevertheless, the indications are that gold production lias relieved the strain on the available gold reserves and dollar assets to a greater extent; than may be generally realized.