CRIPPS GIVES FRESH SURVEY OF BRITISH INDUSTRY AND TRADE

Grey River Argus, 18 September 1948, Page 5

CRIPPS GIVES FRESH SURVEY OF BRITISH INDUSTRY AND TRADE

LONDON, Sept 16.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Stafford Cripps,in the House of Commons to-day, said the latest information on Britain’s economic struggle was of a heatening character which should be a stimulant to further efforts, showing a very great improvement on 1947 and a close approach to the hopeful target set in the economic survey. Any feeling of optimism however, must be tempered by qualifications. Britain spent £887,000,000 on imports, as against the £792,000,000 forecast. He said.—A good world harvest, particularly bumper crops of coarse grain in the western hemisphere, have already affected the price of cereals. “On the other hand® the prices of many industrial commodities, particularly metals, are still rising and show very little sign of falling. Export prices also rose, though only by three per cent. Therefore the terms of trade moved heavily against us during the six months. Exports earned £731,000,000, which was £26,000,000 more than forecast. “This export effort is worthy of the highest praise. Between December, 1947 and June. 1948. the volume of exports rose from 120 to 138 per cent, of the volume of 1938. By the end of June, 1948, it almost certainly reached the target figure of 140 per cent, above pre-war, a figure which has since been well exceeded.

“The most hopeful deylopment is a definite sign of recovery in the invisible income. Shipping produced £30,000,000 in 1947 and Britain earned at the annual rate of £66,000,000 in the first half of 1948.

“Receipts from travel rose from £19,000,000 to an annual rate of £28,000,000. We expect the second half of this year will be better still on travel receipts. The net income from <all other financial activities will also be above expectations. The net result is that the invisible account, which showed a deficit of £192,000,000 in 1947 and which we anticipated would be reduced to £49,000,000 in the first half of this year, actually came out as a surplus of £16,000,000. 1 believe this marks the beginning of an upward trend which will be maintained.” Britain’s total deficit had been only £4,000,000 more than forecast. The exports for the first half of 1948 had totalled £234,000,000, representing an increased value of over 40 per cent — a remarkable achievement in so short a time. Britain had increased her imports and exports with the sterling area roughly at the same pace. She was supplying more in goods and services to European countries, particularly in shipping and oil, than she was receiving in the aggregate, and the excess in the first half of 1948 had been at the rate of £80,000,000 yearly. This had been a contribution to European recovery. HELP FROM STERLING AREA Acknowledging the result of the sterling area’s help in relieving the gold and dollar drain, Sir Stafford Cripps said the achievement since the end of 1947 had been immense. “It is our unalterable policy, during the European Recovery Programme, that our gold and dollars reserve should not fall any further. Even the maintenance of dollar imports at the present level depends on continuing the improvement in our dollar earnings. We have reached, with E.R.P. help, a point where there should be little or no new drawing on our reserve.” U.S.A. AID

The Marshall Aid allotment did not allow any margin for improvement in Britain’s consumption or a*? celeration of .the country’s investment programme. This must come out of the country’s own added effort. . Britain must carry through with her grants to European countries under the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation in-tra-European air scheme. Western Union was possible only on the basis of economic co-operation. The past six months had given proof that Britain had the capacity to deal successfully with her economic problem. The Minister of Fuel, Mr Hugh Gaitskell) said; that in the first eight months of this year British pits had produced 9,00,0,000 tons more coal than in the same months of 1947. In order to reach this year’s production targtet of 211,000 tons, an extra 5,000,000 tons above the 1947 figures must be produced during the remainder of this year. Britain was now exporting coal at the rate of 20,000,000 tons a year, and he hoped that eventually she would get back to her pre-war export figure of 40,000,000 tons.