3 FEBRUARY 1933, Page 34

Financial Notes

(Continued from page v.)

BALANCING THE BUDGET.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer's speech to which I have already referred was probably inspired by the fact that rumours had begun to circulate that lack of pressure to collect the Income Tax revenues this year indicated indiffer- ence to the establishment of an equilibrium in the current year's Balance Sheet ; the idea mooted in some quarters was that in view of the Debts controversy a deficit might be more helpful to negotiations than a surplus ! Needless to say, such rumours lacked foundation, and inasmuch as they were also accompanied by vague assertions that even if there were a .disequilibrium in the next Budget, Income -Tax would be reduced, the Chancellor of the Exchequer .took the first opportunity which presented itself to him to declare emphatically that • his first responsibility was to balance the Budget, and that it was a responsibility more

pressing even than £1 reduction in taxation. A. W. K.

Bank Rate 2 per cent., changed from 2i per cent. on June 30th, 1932.