FALL IN THE POUND

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3443, 10 November 1932, Page 2

FALL IN THE POUND

HAS HELPED ENGLAND. PROFESSOR TOCKER’S VIEW. Though Signor Benito Mussolini, Prime Minister in name and dictator in fact of Italy, contends that Great Britain has gained nothing by the depreciation of its currency, the facts, it is claimed, do not support him. His actual statement was that in those countries, including Great Britain, where the currency has been depreciated, the condition of the people was unimproved. That it is pointed out, may possibly be true, but had the depreciation of the currency not oc-

curred the condition of the people might have been expected to be much worse. “I think that the depreciation of the pound that occurred when Great Britain went off the gold standard has been of definite benefit to British exports,” commented Professor A. H. Tocker at Christchurch. “World trade is so tied up with restrictions and the slump is so bad that it is difficult to trace cause and effect, but Great Britain does seem to have benefited from this. “The fall in British wholesale prices has been much less serious than the fall in the prices of other countries. British prices tend to rise after the gold standard was left, and then fell a little. Other prices havebeen falling all the time, with the result that they are very much lower than they were a year ago. British prices, on the other hand, are slightly higher than they were a year ago.”