BRITISH FINANCES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17145, 30 December 1929, Page 7

BRITISH FINANCES

PAST YEAR REVIEWED A PESSIMISTIC OUTLOOK LONDON, Dec, 29. Financial writers, summing up the year 1929 are almost'unanimously, difc.. nial, and only a few of them show much inclination* to be optimistic regarding 1930. To quote one authority, "Tne past year has not been good either in the financial or the (business world. Industry has lanquished, exports have shown a small clecren.se even compared with tho unsatisfactory figures of 1928, while the losses sustained by financial institutions through failures in one direction or another, to say nothing of losses suffered by the public through the fall in share values, probably has been greater than for many years past." There is, however, one writer, who holds out a little ray of hope for 1930. The Economist says: "The Stock Exchange, though still overhung by the cloud of uncertainty till the Hatry settlements are completed, has so far weathered not only the domestic storm, but the depression from across the Atlantic, which came with cyclonic force in the financial world. We faced and met a crisis which threatened even to .endanger the gold standard in this country, but the Bank of England at a critical moment took a course as bold at it was successful, and the year closes with confidence. Money will go still cheaper, and Great Britain's monetary position in regard to gold need cause no anxiety." YEAR'S 'CAPITAL ISSUES. An illustration of tho unsatisfactory year the Stock Exchange has had,- is ~p. given in the returns of the year's new capital issues in London, which show a reduction of £84,000,000, compared with 1928, although the total that year was jjjjj exceptionally high. Altogether, the new issues for 1929 totalled £285,000,000 compared with £369,000,000 last year, and £355,000,000 in 1929. Of this year's issues £198,000,000 were for the United Kingdom, including £65,000,000 of Goveminent borrowing, while British possessions issued £61,000,000, of which £26,000,000 was for the governments. Foreign countries' issues amounted to £26,200,000. • ; - Commenting on these figures the Economist writes: "Investors in new issues even of the highest class have seen holdings in a number of instances under-; J go serious depreciation. The prospect of comparatively cheap money in 1930 encourages the hope that sound borrowers at least will be able in the near future to make issues on the London market on better terms and with more. propitious chances of success. It is clear, however, that the progress of restoring activity on the new issue market, as a whole, is likely to be slow and the public, after the experience of the unsound boom in 1928, is likely for some time to exercise considerable discrimination between offers."