OVERSEAS TRADE

Northern Advocate, 16 October 1931, Page 4

OVERSEAS TRADE

PIGUEES POE DOMINION. BALANCE ON EIGHT SIDE. HEAVY DEOP IN IMPOETS. The restriction of imports to correspond with the shrunken value of ex- < ports from New Zealand again affected the returns of overseas trade in September, a summary of winch was issued by the Customs Department in Wellington yesterday.. Valuations of both exports and imports were almost identical with the return for August, - exports being £9OOO higher and imports £55,000 less. An excess of imports is normal in this season of the' year, but on this occasion the surplus is the smallest recorded in September for many years.

The value of exports in August (£1,623,891) constituted a new low record for any month. The September figure was slightly better, though £440,000 less than that of last year. Imports have been reduced by £1,577,000, to a total substantially less than half that for September of 1929.

The returns for the first nine months of the year show a decline in the value of exports of nearly £10,000,000,. against which imports have been reduced - by over £14,000,000. Following is a summary of the returns for the last ten years:— Nine

—-Excess of Imports. The apparent favourable balance (£8,171,000) is- £4,388,000 larger than for the corresponding period last year, and has been exceeded only three times in the decade. ■ ' ; • The shrinkage in the Value of exports is heavy, though there is reason to believe that the return for the quarter last year was inflated by the shipment of produce accumulated in preceding months. The contraction of imports is scarcely revealed by the direct comparison with last year's figures, which represented a substantial fall. In the last six years, 192429, imports in the September quarter averaged £12,800,000, so that the latest figure is less than half the value St imports before the slump. The valuation of exports for the same period averaged £7,400,000, compared with which the latest quarter's return represents a decline of 27 per cent.

Throughout the returns, exports are entered at f.o.b. values in New Zealand currency, and imports are valued on the basis of values in exporting countries, plus 10 per cent.