FALLING TRADE

Southland Times, Issue 22216, 8 January 1934, Page 2

FALLING TRADE

UNEMPLOYMENT RISES IN FRANCE. UNCERTAINTY ABOUT EXCHANGE. Paris, December 8. Unemployment figures for the week ending December 2 show a rise of 6626 to a total of 257,836. This exceeds the figure for the corresponding week in 1932 by 1261. The total, however, still remains well below the record for six years of 331,816 reached in the first week in March.

The fact that unemployment has been steadily increasing in the last three months is causing concern here, for while it is partly due to seasonal factors, it is also evidence that business here is getting worse. Authorities say the stagnation is due to exchange uncertainties and abnormally high production costs.

Export Trade Difficult.

Business men are afraid to make commitments, for they do not feel entirely safe, even about the franc, for very far ahead. Taxes are a serious burden, while high tariffs, high salaries, and the high cost of living keep prices at a level where France cannot sell her goods abroad, and is finding business getting worse in the interior. Within recent weeks several commission houses which had been doing business for more than a century had to close down. Many weaker firms went long ago. These facts explain why there is a powerful movement to lighten the burden of taxation and why. many business men would like to see inflation or devaluation of the franc, so that internal prices could be brought down to the level of world prices.