International Dollar Gap For Quarter Lowest Since End Of The War

Wanganui Chronicle, 22 June 1950, Page 5

International Dollar Gap For Quarter Lowest Since End Of The War

WASHINGTON, June 20 (Recd. 8 pm).—The international dollar gap shrank to 653,000,000 dollars in the first quarter of 1950, the Commerce Department reported today. It was the lowest for any quarter since the end of the war. Converted to an annual rate basis the United States surplus of exports and of goods and services over imports was 2,600.000,000 dollars—lo,ooo,ooo dollars below the post-war peak in the second quarter of 1947. The dollar gap in 1949 was 6200 million dollars. The department said evidence of the somewhat easier financial position of foreign countries was shown not only by the reduced export surplus but by the continued increase in the foreign holdings of gold and United States dollars. The department added that although the data seemed to indicate considerable progress toward achieving a balance in American international transactions unwarranted conclusions should not be drawn on the basis of a single quarter. “Another significant development of the first quarter was the continued increase in our purchases of merchandise in foreign countries, which rose from 1600 million dollars in the third quarter of 1949 to 2000 million dollars in the first three months of 1950. This appears to be ufle chiefly to the general rise in business activity in the United States, accompanied by changes in inventory policies and price increase.” The department said the devaluations of last September, although undoubtedly an influencing factor, did not appear to be a primary cause for the large rise in the value of imports in recent months.