Industry at Record High Level

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 21, 18 October 1937, Page 5

Industry at Record High Level

-PresV A 83n. -

BRITISH RECOVERY ' Anxious Period on Sbare Market Ends 'SLUMP TALK FANTASHC

(Bv Telegraph-

-Copy right.)

(Received 18, 11.30, a.in.) LONDON, Oct. 17. By general consent, the past fortnight has been the most anxious on the Stoek Exclmnge sincp 1929, but fortunately tbe worst seems to be over. City busiuess men all agree that slump tallc is fantastic, T'he Ecbnomist declares that tbe majority of indus'triftl* Miuister and the Gbancellpr of the i?ts eudorse the opiuion of the Prime Miuister aud the Chancellor of the Exchequer tbat recovery has hofc yfl reaohed its peak. There is little real evideaee in the British national economy to suggest that a feal slump is ahead ; on th« contrary, many industrie? have spectacularly increased their rate pf nctmty in the recovery years. Thdre jt no sign of a serious decline in the. pqrchasing power of the public, EJven th» export trades are less vulnerable than in 1929. a? tbe primary-producing: countries are no longer dependefit OU foreign loans, The economic defences are thus sounded than in 1929. Th* repetition of such a slump is unlikely. Tho Economist's quarterly analysii of industrial profits also makes slump talk seem ridiculous, The rise of pro-. fits has beep so generous that shareholders have received increased dividends at a time when industry a? * whole is finaucing capital growth froip its own resources. The Economist's index slwws that business activity aa a whole is running at record high levels. Therefore, it appears that the pricea of many industrial eharea are belpw. reasonabl# levels.