Slight fall in sales of manufactured goods

Press, 30 June 1983, Page 8

Slight fall in sales of manufactured goods

PA Wellington Sales of manufactured ’oods fell half a per cent in he first quarter of the year compared with the same time in 1982, the Statistics Department announced yesterday. The department’s quarterly economic survey of manufacturing showed that sales were 0.6 per cent lower. It shows that the value of stock in the industry is 7.5 per cent higher than last year, although purchases and other working expenses had decreased by 5.7 per cent. Wages were up 3.2 per cent, but hours worked were down 5.3 per cent. The figures are based on a sample survey of manufacturing units. Labour’s spokesman on trade and industry, Mr D. F. Caygill, said that the fall in manufacturers’ sales was

yet another consequence of the wage and price freeze. “We know from last week’s Statistics Department release that at least 60 per cent of wage and salary earners last year experienced a fall in their incomes, after allowing for tax,” he said.

He said that the 0.6 per cent fall, added to the 8.3 per cent rise in prices for industrial products announced on Tuesday, meant that in real terms manufacturers’ had fallen almost 9 per cent in the financial year. This drop helped explain the continuing rise in unemployment, Mr Caygill said. “More than a quarter of the full-time labour force works in the manufacturing sector. If manufacturers’ sales are down, so is their ability to employ more people.”