TRADE STATISTICS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22027, 6 February 1935, Page 7

TRADE STATISTICS

CHANGE IN COMPILATION CONVERSIONS INTO STERLING VARYING VALUES OF THE £1 •> i A change is to be made in the method of showing in the New Zealand official trade statistics the value of all imports. From January 1 these values will be shown in terms of sterling, thus removing the present misleading entries, which take no account of the difference in the £1 in various parts of the Empire. - r ';

The matter wa;s recently brought under the notice of the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. R. Masters, by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, when it was pointed out that, notwithstanding the fact that the £1 in the United Kingdom, in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand had diverged very materially, the Government Statistician was supplied with returns, in which Australian pounds were freely added to English pounds without any adjustment for their different values.

The chamber pointed out a further anomaly resulting from the fact that the Customs Department insisted on showing imports converted into sterling where they were expressed in other currencies, whereas exports were shown in terms of New Zealand currency. There was a natural temptation for people desirous of arriving at balances of trade, either for New Zealand as a. whole or as between New Zealand and particular countries, to subtract the import figure from the export figure, or vice versa, without the necessary adjustment. The desirability of rectifying the matter was urged on the Minister.

The Minister has advised the chamber that from January 1 the value of all imports into New Zealand will be shown in terms of sterling in the oilicial trade statistics. This will mean that all imports from Australia, admissible as the produce or manufacture of that country and therefore, hitherto, shown in Australian currency, will be converted to and shown as sterling. For purposes of comparison an attempt would also be made to show in sterling values all imports entered during 1934. In the official Abstract of Statistics this would in due course have the effect of eliminating the column "Recorded Values" under the heading of imports. "With reference, however, to the question of adjusting the values of all imports to New Zealand currency," added the Minister, "it is regretted that so long as ad valorem rates of duty are charged on the current domestic values in the country of export expressed in terms of sterling (except for the bulk of imports from Australia), it would not be possible, without an increase in the statistics staff of the Customs Department, to make these conversions on approximately 200,000 import entries passed annually/'