WORLD CONDITIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21538, 9 January 1932, Page 10

WORLD CONDITIONS

TURN TOWARD PROSPERITY? MONTREAL, December 30. Has there been a definite turn in the business cycle, leading to a permanent recovery of world conditions? The answer to this question is being keenly discussed by economic observers in every country. In its .eview of business conditions in Canada for the month of November, the Royal Bank of Canada emphasises how difficult it is to determine the turning point in business. There were some commodity prices which had reached their peak, and begun to decline, after the middle of 1928. Other commodity prices did not reach their high point until he later months of 1929. Wholesale commodity prices in the United States passed their peak in June, 1929, but the real fall in security prices did not begin until tlie end of October of that year. If it is difficult to define the moment at which the downward phase of the cycle is initiated, the bank says, it is even more difficult to recognise the time when improvement really sets in. In-the, past, improvement has been initiated by a change in sentiment, and there is a reasonable amount of evidence that such u change in sentiment is now taking place.