OVERSEAS TRADE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 71, 21 February 1940, Page 14

OVERSEAS TRADE.

EXPORT VALUES LOWER. SHARP FALL IN IMPORTS, In terms of New Zealand currency, and excluding specie, exports lor the year ended December 31. 1939, amounted to £58,008 717, and imports for the same period to £49,387,153, resulting in an excess of exports over imports of £8,621 534, as compared with £2,954,094 m 1938, £lO,552,684 in 1937, and £12,493,054 in 1936. Total exports of merchandise m ltjoa show a slight decline of £367,566 under the 1938 total. Lower wool pricesi wore responsible for a drop of over £500,000 in the declared value of wool exported. Butter declined in quantity by 6 jicr cent., and in value by 2 per cent. Other decreases of note occurred in cheese. mutton pork, apples, and tallow. 1 lie foregoing declines were partly offset by a substantial increase in gold, and to lesser increases in beef, veal and sheepskins without wool. . The result of import control is seen in a reduction of total imports from £55,422 189 in 1933 to £49.387.183 in 1939. a fall of 11 per cent. The fall did not commence until July, and up to the end of .Tunc, the first six-monthly period of ir.port licensing, the 1939 total was nearly £1,100,000 in excess of Hie IJ3B total Comparing the six months July to December, the 1939 figure is down by over £7.000.000 (25 per cent.). . Imports of motor-spirits in 1939 wore a record at 103,732,081 gallons compared with a previous record of 102,288.8.* gallons established in 1938. The quantity of tea imported in 1939 increased by 3 per cent., and sugar by 12 per cent. Unmanufactured tobacco nearly doubled in quantity, phosphates rose by 25 tier cent., and tinned plate and sheet by 20 pci' cent.