HOLDINGS IN AMERICA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24421, 5 October 1940, Page 11

HOLDINGS IN AMERICA

RESOURCES AND ASSETS BRITAIN'S SOUND POSITION • Britisrj Official Wireless) RUGBY, Oct. 3. •(Received Oct. 4, at 7 p.m.) So far Britain has dipped only lightly into the reserves and assets convertible into dollars, according to the monthly bulletin of the National City Bank of New York. Only a comparatively small part of £1,250,000,000 of liquid dollar assets and gold held at the beginning of the war had been paid out. The ability of the Empire to finance heavy purchases here hus 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 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 r,i the war was probably evidence that the merchandise trade balance substantially understates the 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 generally be realised.