OUR FOREIGN TRADE.
Undoubtedly, active conditions continue to characterise the domestic trade of the country, and the Foreign Trade Returns for the month of July show the highest total of exports for about seven years, while the large figures of imports mean that in the aggregate there has been an increase in the general turnover. This increase, however, is not so great as might appear from the fact that for the first seven months of the year imports show an increase in value of £97,000,000, and exports of £61,000,000, the reason being that higher prices account for very much of the advance, and I cannot help thinking it is rather regrettable that so many newspapers, in the desire to present a bright picture of trade, fail to recognise the qualifying points in the situation. Not only are the figures greatly affected by the rise in prices, but the effect of this rise is far more notice- able in the imports than in the exports. To take one instance—but a very important one—the rise in the value of foodstuffs imported for the seven months was about £24,000,000 and, in the case of wheat, although the quantity imported in that time was rather less than for the same period of last year, the increase in value was over £9,000,000, scarcely a favourable point in the economic situation. Moreover, while recognising the advance which has taken place in exports—and I am glad to note that for the past month the percentage rise was greater than in the case of imports—we should not lose sight of the growing excess of imports over exports. For the first seven months of the current year, the visible adverse balance as expressed in this excess of imports was £222,000,000, or £36,000,000 more than for the corresponding period of last year, while, as compared with the first seven months of 1935, the increase in the visible adverse balance was £77,000,000. It can only be hoped that, when the year has closed, it may be discovered that invisible exports, chiefly in the shape of freights, may show some corresponding advance.
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