TRADE STIMULATION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20205, 16 January 1934, Page 1

TRADE STIMULATION.

What Roocevelt Plan Has Done. President Roosevelt’s dollar depreciation campaign is making further progress in the stimulation of business aiyl the raising of prices, wrote the City Editor of the London “ Daily Express ” on December 5. Here are a few facts: The car sales since August have exceeded production, dealers’ stocks are very low, and manufacturers will have difficulty in meeting the demands for the next two months. Estimates are that the Ford Company has so improved its position that its loss for 1933 will be round £3.000.000 as against £9,000,000 in 1932 According to the American Federation of Labour, the buying power of American labour has been £120.000.000 a month higher since March owing to the increase in employment. The estimate of the income of American farmers for 1933 is 24 per cent higher than in 1932. Out of 53 railways which have published their traffic figures for the first two weeks of November only six show a decrease as against last year. The programme of expenditure on public works is being put into operation, and between £20.000,000 and £25,000,000 a week is now being allotted for that purpose. The improvement in the motor-car industry is making the outlook for the steel trade better. The ‘‘New York Times” weekly business index stood on Saturday at 74.8 as against 73.9 for the preceding week and 73 for the week ended November 11. The upward trend is expected to lie stimulated by the dollar depreciation policy. Since October, when the goldbuying policy began, commodity prices have increased on the average by 16 per cent.