ECONOMIC DEADLOCK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27385, 10 May 1950, Page 7

ECONOMIC DEADLOCK

“ Dodge Line ” Only Partly Successful RECOVERY IN JAPAN NZPA—Reuter—Copyright TOKIO, May 8. “The Dodge Line,” the guiding programme laid down by the American banker, Mr Joseph Dodge, alone is not enough to overcome Japan’s current economic deadlock, states a report prepared by the Economic Stabilisation Board of the Japanese Government. The report .calls for the expansion of domestic markets, increased industrial investment, and the restoration of economic relations with Asian countries. The report admits that the Dodge Line has been successful to a considerable extent in its first year of enforcement. The overcoming of inflation and the return of the country’s economy to normal have made rapid progress, says the report. Annual output figures for the 1949 fiscal year are larger than the goal set by the board in mining, manufacturing, agricultural, forestry, and fishery categories. The report points out, however, that it fell short in the field of foreign trade and industrial investment. Against, the target of 593,000,000 dollars’ worth of exports and 1,005,000,000 dollars of imports, the actual trade figures were 511,000,000 dollars of exports and 902,000,000 dollars of imports. The report attributes the unsatisfactory foreign trade chiefly to international factors. Industrial investment totalled 128 billion yen, against a target of 178 billion yen, and the report singles out the Dodge Line as solely responsible for the failure to attain the goal. The report says that unemployed now total apparently 300,000 to 400,000. However, many jobless had returned to farms increasing farm employment by 3,000,000. The only step now under consideration to cope with the situation was to expand foreign trade, says the report. Fortunately, export contracts since January had increased. However, it was problematical whether trade could develop to such an extent as to eliminate deflationary factors in the country's economy. Many of the bottlenecks now confronting Japanese economv have originated from its fundamental structural disharmony created by the surrender. It was, therefore, a mistake to presume that current living difficulties hacl been brought about by the enforcement of the Dodge economic policy alone. It was no less a mistake to hope for an improvement of prevailing difficult economic conditions only through a balanced budget.