BRITISH NATIONAL FINANCES IN FIRST HALF OF YEAR

Wanganui Chronicle, 3 October 1946, Page 5

BRITISH NATIONAL FINANCES IN FIRST HALF OF YEAR

OUTLOOK BETTER THAN WAS ANTICIPATED

Recd. 11.35 p.m. London, Oct. 2. Appraisals of the condition of British national finances at the end of the first half of the fiscal year mainly agree that the expenditure and revenue figures so far justify the hopes of a better budgetary outcome for the year than the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Dalton, predicted in April, says the Australian Associated Press special correspondent.

I The £22,000,000 fall in ordinary revenue to September 30 is only oneflfth of Mr. Dalton's estimated decline for the full financial year, and the £35,000,000 drop in the income .tax yield is only about one-seventh the decline forecast for the whole year. All the tax-revenue items have put up a good showing, except excise, where the cut in beer production, which, estimated to cost the Treasury £48.000,000 in the full year, has left its mark. With full economies yet to

be realised in supply service disbursements, the expenditure is down by £931,000,000, compared with the first half of last year, or nearly half of the Budget’s anticipated decline of £1,963,000. Some quarters, therefore, look for the final outcome of the year’s accounts to be substantially better than the £725,000,000 deficit forecast, but there is unfavourable comment on Mr. Dalton’s failure to bridge the gap between expenditure and revenue. Mr. Dalton, in April, hoped to avoid any large new borrowing from the city, but seems domed to disappointment, because of the unsatisfactory low level of small savings. H e estimated small savings to amount to £520,000,000 in a full year, whereas in the first six months they produced only £18,000,000. If the autumn savings campaign result falls short of official expectations, increased borrowing from the money market is inevitable, and Mr. Dalton may find difficulty in fulfilling his promise of further relief in taxation.