Finance—Public and Private
British Credit and National Expenditure
BY no means for the first time in Stock Exchange experi- ence, the year seems to be closing with general cheerful- ness in securities. Quite the outstanding feature, how- ever, during the past few weeks has been the particular strength of British Funds and kindred securities and at the time of writing the market is very much inclined to anticipate the announcement of some further Government Conversion Loan by or before the end of the year. If only in view of the fact that a very large amount of debt matures on April 1st next, to say nothing of still larger sums maturing next September, it would certainly not be surprising to find that the Treasury was taking time by the forelock and making some offer of conversion into 4 per cent. Consols or some other form of debt, but, at the same time, there seems to be little likelihood of the Government being able to save any really large amount through conversion operations until monetary conditions are easier than at present, and until the National Credit, as expressed in quotations of British Funds, has been raised further.
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