THE DOMINION’S TRADE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 121, 22 April 1932, Page 6

THE DOMINION’S TRADE.

The return of overseas trade for the past financial year should fix firmly in the minds of all the great loss of income to this Dominion in the fall in value of the produce we send abroad. Our exports in this period were valued at £33,581,877, a decline of nearly £6,000,000 when compared with those for the previous financial year. Two years ago, however, we exported in round figures £49,000,000 worth of goods, while in 1929 the figure was £57,000,000. The actual falling off in export values since then is £23,572,466. On the other side of the ledger imports have been severely curtailed. The value for the twelve-monthly period is £23,165,500, a decrease of more than £15,000,000 on the 1931 figures. Actually, imports have declined to a point less than half of the sum recorded two years a o*o. The excess of exports for 1931-32 is £10,416,377, but this sum does not accurately state the surplus in London for the period, as imports are given in sterling and exports in New Zealand currency. An adjustment would bring the surplus to approximately £8,000,000. Our trade balance, therefore, has _ greatly improved, and the position, it must also be remembered, has been materially eased with the loan of £5,000,000 recently raised in London. The trading figures now disclosed would seem to bear out the contention of the banks that the rate of exchange should not be altered as strenuously advocated a while ago to a level that, in the circumstances, must have been proved to be artificial.