OUR TRADE OVERSEAS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 157, 4 June 1934, Page 4

OUR TRADE OVERSEAS

ANALYSIS OF FIGURES. SURVEY OF INTEREST. WELLINGTON, June 4. Statistics of external trade indicate a lower total volume of overseas trade in April as compared with March, reports the Government Statistician, but both exports and imports show considerably higher total values than in April of last year. Although export, trade falls away in the winter and early spring months, the import commodity trade of the Dominion does not normally show any marked “off season” decrease, and, consequently, it is normal for the considerable monthly excess of export values shown in the early months of the year to decrease rapidly from March onward, until, in the months of September and October, an excess of commodity imports is usually revealed. The fall in the values of exports between March and April was £l,346,651, as compared with a fall of only £52,000 (New Zealand currency i basis) in import values; and this lessening of the present wide gap between monthly totals of' export and import values may be expected to accelerate rapidly during the next few months.. Exports of wool during the ten months ending with April totalled 248,0Qjp,0001b. (valued at £11,700,000), equivalent to 267,000,0001 b. in the grease. The figure is in excess of the production that might have beeTi expected from the reduced flocks, and it appears reasonable to coi*clude that stocks of wool at June 30, 1934, will be substantially lower than at June 30, 1933, when they amounted to 78,600.0001 b. Exports (excluding specie) for the month of April amounted to £5,408,418 in New Zealand currency, equivalent to £4,327,000 on a sterling basis. The decrease in the amount of wool exported during April was the predominant influence exerted in bringing about' the reduction of £1,346,651 in the recorded value of exports as compared with the previous month. Exports of butter showed an increase of 63,697 cwt. in quantity and £229,753 in' value as compared with March. For the four-monthly period ending with April, the recorded value of exports amounted to £23,493,051, or £18,795,000 in sterling, as compared with £16,542,023 (New Zealand currency) and £13.233,000 (sterling) for a similar 2>eriod of 1933. Imports show a slight recession for April, the recorded value (excluding specie) being £1,978,987, equivalent to £2,414,000 in New Zealand currency, and £1,932:000 in sterling. Nevertheless, the total is nearly 35 per cent, in excess of that recorded for tlie month of April, 1933. The excess of exports for the, twelve months ending April. 1934, amounted to £21,210,000 in New Zealand currency, equivalent to £16,968,000, while the excess for the year ending with April, 1933, amounted to £11,277,000 and £9,376.000 respectively.