DULL CONDITIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 12, 14 July 1938, Page 12

DULL CONDITIONS

BUSINESS IN AMERICA

Judged .by the movement of trade indices from March to April, conditions- in- the United States showed a further definite recession, while business in Canada experienced a slight net decline, reported the Bank of Nova Scotia, June 13. In both countries there was. a general decrease in the seasonally corrected indices of employment in the manufacturing industries, though in the United States the loss was considerably greater than in Canada. *

Reduced activity in the textile and newsprint industries on both sides of the international border tended to depress industrial production, but in Canada gains in the sub-indices of mineral exports and constructional activity were more than sufficient to offset such restrictive tendencies. For the first.time'in several years, three Canadian indices were lower than in the corresponding month of the preceding year: Employment in manufactures was down \\ per cent., industrial production was off 9 per cent, and car loadings had declined by 11 per cent. While these losses were substantial, they were very much smaller than those which have occurred in the United States. The United States index of employment was 22 per cent, lower in April, 1938, than in April, 1937, and industrial production and car loadings were down 35 percent, and 32 per cent respectively.