ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3429, 2 December 1919, Page 19

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.

(By Cable). ROME, November 22. The Interallied Economic Council has opened. I November 23.

Lord Crawford, speaking at the Interallied Economic Committee, declared that the Allied control of coal production and distribution was an insupportable burden on-the British taxpayer. During the past 16 months the British Treasury had lost at the rate of £400,000 per week. The only solution of the problem lay in increased production, not only in England, but in Prance and the rest of Europe. Mr Cecil Harmsw'orth, Foreign UnderSecretary, in answer to a question, said that supplying Austria with the necessities of life concerned not only the Allies but the whole world. The Economic Council had neither the power nor the means to -meet that necessity. The council decided to continue the Interallied arrangements regarding food supplies after December 31. LONDON,- November 25.

A White Paper estimates the world'wheat yield for 1910 at 99.3 per cent, of the five years' average pre-war yield; the yield of sugar at 96.3 per cent. ; wool, 91.8 per cent, as compared with the 1913.

The coal output of America, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany for the first half-year of 1919 was 80.6 per cent., as compared with the first half of 1913-

A comparison of the expansion of the currpncy with the rise of wholesale food prices—taking 100 as an nndex number in 1913 as a basis—shows the following results :

The public debt per head since the war shows the following increases: Britain, £157; Germany, £123; France, £114"; Italy, £73; Australia, £B9; Belgium, £74; America, £55. Japan's debt increased only 3s per head.

Country. Currency Expansion. Rise in Food. Sweden ... 274 , 239 Britain ... 244 257 France ... 365 ■370 Italy... ... 440 329 America ... 173 236