New Trade Horizons
The time has come to raise the sights for exports. The official objective of exports valued at L750,000,000 in the whole year 1946 seems likely to be attained by October, and if the monthly rate then reached can be kept' up the further target of exports 75 per cent. above the pre-war volume is certain to be achieved in 1947. Clearly it will require a great and sustained effort to reach and maintain that level, but mere economic survival requires no less. Exports of machinery, vehicles and electrical equipment are already doing more than their share. A spurt is now required of the laggards, cotton and wool textiles and coal—though the attempt to revive British coal exports, will be sadly like applying spurs to a dead horse. In the meantime the statistical watchdogs may well divert their attention to an even more important topic—the overall balance of payments, of which payments for imports and exports are only a part. In the first five months of 1946 British imports amounted to L494,000,000 and exports to L342,000,000. This is not neces- sarily alarming in itself. British visible imports will always exceed visible exports. The real trouble is that net income from such " invisible " items as dividends on overseas investments and ship- ping, banking and insurance services is not filling the gap. Un- fortunately the exact size of the deficit is not known, and until reasonably full figures of the overseas balance of payments are pub- lished observers outside Government circles will have no oppor- tunity to measure progress in this field. There is a clear case for the inclusion of a new table in the Government's Monthly Digest of Statistics.
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