OVERSEAS TRADE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21289, 16 September 1932, Page 10

OVERSEAS TRADE

The returns of New Zealand's overseas trade in August, issued by the Customs Department, illustrate in au even more emphatic way than recent similar figures the abnormal situation created by high pressure exporting activity and the severe restriction of imports. The production season has scarcely begun, and exports are not ordinarily running in full tide during August. On tho other hand, the month belongs to the period when traders are accustomed to replenish stocks. Consequently, reduced export figures and heavy imports generally produce what is conventionally known as an unfavourable balance for the month. This year, on the contrary, there is an appreciable excess of exports over imports. Comparison with other years shows the result to have been produced by movements 011 both sides. The improvement in prices that has occurred recently cannot be responsible for more than a portion of the increased export values : a substantially greater volume of exports must explain the major part. Though a possible concentration of shipping makes it unsafe to conclude too much from the exports for a single month, other evidence suggests that increased production even thus early in the season had most to do with the result. There was an official. statement at the beginning of the week revealing an unusually heavy export of newly-won gold in August. The low level of imports, too, must be attributed largely to circumscribed activity in merchants and other importers. The possible effect of a fall in tho wholesale prices of manufactured goods must be allowed, but its dimensions cannot be estimated. It is not unreasonable, perhaps, to assume that a desire to await the outcome of the Ottawa Conference had some influence in reducing orders abroad during August, combining with doubts about a revival of the public demand for commodities to curb buying operations. The better tone now discovered in the business world had not developed in time to influence the import side of overseas trade last month.