MARKET BRIGHTER

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1935, Page 7

MARKET BRIGHTER

LEAGUE ACTON WAITED BRITISH TRADE REVIVAL i EXPANSION' INTERNALLY z LESS EXPORT BUSINESS By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright London, Aug. 31. The stock exchange has been under the shadow of the Italo-Abyssinian dis-* pute, which caused uneasiness. Signor Mussolini’s mid-week statement regarding Italy’s attitude towards Britain had a slightly reassuring effect, and the tone at the close yesterday was more hopeful. Gilt-edgeds show a decline all round, not so much on account of selling but as the result of the absence of buying orders. This paucity of business is due mainly to the general tendency to await the meeting of the League of Nations on Wednesday before venturing into further commitments. In this state of affairs it is satisfactory < to note that Dominion stocks generally maintained their position well, only slight declines being recorded. . . Dullness was also marked in the industrial section and mining shares were inactive. The Midland Bank Review, in a quarterly survey of the business outlook, takes an optimistic view. After referring to the decline in ths number of insured unemployed persons it says: “The unemployed were below 2,000,000 for the first time for five years. A This, however, affords only moderate satisfaction when it is remembered that only ten years ago 1,000,000 was regarded as distressingly high.” “Meanwhile the volume of production has surpassed the 1934 level, and the number of insured employed is larger than ever at approximately 10,400000,” adds the review. "An important difference between conditions ten years ago and now lies in the further shrinkage of export trade. The volume of our exports, notwithstanding some recent improvement, is still only about three- ’ quarters of what it was in. 1924. Recovery, moreover, can hardly be rapid, v? and may not for some years , take us back even to the early post war level. “According to an inquiry made by Messrs. Daniels and Campion, of Man-chester-University, into the relative im- . portance of our export trade judged by. the new value of output of industrial and agricultural commodities, exports absorbed between 21 and 24 per cent, of our products in 1924-25. It is estimated that the proportion for 1930-31 was 16J to 20 per cent., and a tentative estimate for 1934 puts it even lower as the result of a marked expansion in home business. Roughly speaking five-sixths of our current production is for consumption at home.

“Thus it becomes still .more evident that for further business recovery we must continue to look mainly to the home market.”