EMPIRE’S ASSETS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 264, 5 October 1940, Page 7

EMPIRE’S ASSETS.

ONLY SLIGHTLY TOUCHED. (British Official AVireless.) RUGBY, Oct. 3. So far Britain 'lias dipped only lightly into her reserves of assets con vertiblc into dollars, according to the monthly bulletin of the National City Bank of New York. Only a comparatively small part of the £1 250,(XX),000 of liquid dollar assets and gold held at the beginning of the war has been paid out. The ability of the Empire to finance heavy purchases in the United States has not yet been strained. The most striking fact revealed by an examination of the figures is that the Empire’s output of newly-mined gold, amounting to more than £187,000.000 during the first year of the war, would more than offset the Empire’s unfavourable balance on merchandise trade in the same period. A reduction of £120,000.000 in the dollar balances and security holdings in the first 10 months of the war is probably evidence that the merchandise tracle balance substantially understates British payments made in the United States. Nevertheless, the indications are that gold production has relieved the strain on the available gold reserves and dollar assets to a greater extent than may be generally realised.