LOWER COSTS IN BRITAIN

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1933, Page 5

LOWER COSTS IN BRITAIN

REVIVAL OF INDUSTRIES. SMALL PRICE RISE ENOUGH. Surveying the situation of British industries, the quarterly review of Messrs. J. Henry Schroder and Co., states: “It is evident that while a rise in prices to the 1928 level might be desirable from the point, of view of debt contracts, a much more modest advance would, in view of the reduction in production costs, enable producers to make a living and to find a margin for expenditure on the equipment and machinery which, during the lean years, they have been forced to neglect. This demand will quickly react on the activity and prosperity of the manufacturing industries, which, on their side, have also been making drastic reductions in working costs. This is notably so in British industry, which had a good deal of leeway to make up in this respect. ; “Mainly owing to the! introduction of more modem plant and machinery, steel billets and many other articles are now being produced in England on'terms that enable them to compete with foreign goods, now that , a tariff has checked the dumping activities of Continental manufacturers. The increased orders thus obtained by British firms have, by reduction of overhead charges, brought down the cost of other articles; and there is every sign that British industry, as soon as exchange restrictions have been removed and international trade revives, will follow the lead of British finance, the restoration of which has been the most remarkable feature of the past quarter’s history,’ V . . v