Spending Less Does Not Worry Cripps

Chronicle (Levin), 17 July 1948, Page 7

Spending Less Does Not Worry Cripps

* LONDON, July 16. The faet that the people of Bfitain are not spending tlieir money so i'reely as a year ago is not worrying fcJir Stafford Ciripps. In his ow&* words, it is "jiist wliat wo tried to bring about and the process certainly has not reached.the point \vliere we should cousider any st&ps to'countexact it. " it rwas only a compaxativoiy short tiine ago that the people were told that too niuch money was chasing too f ew goods. The Government was wo tried about inflation. Now Sir BtaH'ord Cripps has said:. "I believe we've cliec'Jked tho inflationary trend. In a snialJ way and in soiue isolated cases some symptonis of disinflation are beginning to appear. " For the benefit of those wlio. desire to know the diil'erence between deflation and disinflation, Sir Stafford has delined the two in terms of a ear tyro. Disinflation, he said, is ietting its air out of a hard tyre to get , it to the right pressure. Deflation is a puneture which stops the car. Sir Stafford has conflrnied reports that people are biiyihtj less. There had, Iie said, been "f},n appreciable l'alling off" in tho deniand for such things as radio sets, olectric elocks, and electric applianees for tlie iipme such as' carpet sweepers. Expensiye ' hotels were no longer crowded out. , fligli charges for holiday facilities. -wero reducing holiday Etralbc. The Londoii theatrcs were runiung througli a bad period and cinema.queues ' vvere noticeably shorter. This evidence that people have less' rtioney to spend, he cmphasised, was, no cause ror aiann. ■There was no need to see in it the beginning of a slump ■ "No oue need fear, wholesale iinem ployment," he r.dded. "That will eornc only if we are unablo to raiso ..ob! output high enough to pay for our fooo aud the raw inuterials. needed by in dustry. " Sir Stafford Cripps a'so gave an as surance that if rtecessary s.teps wOuld' be t alton to prevent deflation — or disinflation — ir/)m going too far. Ho de ciared that the response made to the Government 's appeal for the stabilisa tion of prices and profi.ts had been encouraging, but he regrotted that labour was still inoving far too siowl.v iuto nnderiuanncd . industries. More poopl e were Still wanted in"!; tlie nunes", mills, and on the land and fewer in distributive trade. Steel production must. be increased even at the rislt of ovor supply. Observers remark that Sir Stafford Cripps' romarks wero some of ]Lhe rnost optimistic on Briiain's internal finance for tho past, twelve months. ,