BUSY TIME IN AMERICA

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 145, 16 December 1940, Page 12

BUSY TIME IN AMERICA

The Bank of Nova Scotia reports that the upturn of business activity in both Canada and the United States continued during September. Two of the three Canadian indices rose substantially, while all the American indices gained ground as the industrial expansion in that country was accelerated. In Canada the employment in manufacturing rose chiefly owing to "heavy" industries and further improvement in textiles and forest products. Increased activity in the iron and steel group, along with a further sharp rise in construction were leading factors in industrial production, although here advance limited by declines in some of highly volatile export and import components. In the United States, initial effects on American industry of huge appropriations for national defence —more than 8,000,000.000 dollars from June to October—and further increases in war orders from Britain were reflected in the advance of employment and industrial production. Expanded activity in iron and steel, automobile, machinetool, and shipbuilding industries accounted for much of the gain.