INFLATION IN CHINA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 49, 4 July 1947, Page 6

INFLATION IN CHINA

TRANSPORT OP DRUGS • “The cost of flying in this equipment and drugs would amount to 700,000 Chinese dollars, or £30,” said the secretary of Corso (Mr Colin Morison) at a meeting of Corso’s finance committee in Wellington. The committee, whose consternation at his statement changed to relieved laughter as he completed it, was discussing the outfitting of the doctor whom Corso will shortly send to China as one of several helpers for Rewi Alley. Although bookkeeping became fantastic in a country where the price of certain commodities had been known to increase 800 per cent in a single week, continued Mr Morrison, that did not mean that the real cost of living increased accordingly.

In Shanghai itself, where everything must be bought with Chinese currency, inflation could very largely be “beaten” by those who knew how, declared Mr Morrison. For example, the living costs of the American and Canadian relief workers, whom Corso’s New Zealanders would join, had actually been 3s a day lower in New Zealand currency, in April than in January, and were only 16s a day in February and March, although actual shop prices, marked in thousands and millions of Chinese dollars, had continued to soar throughout that period. In addition to their maintenance being provided, all Corso’s volunteers would receive an army private’s pay in New Zealand currency for their out-of-pocket expenses.