NOTE CIRCULATION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 82, 30 December 1937, Page 8

NOTE CIRCULATION

-PresB Aesociation.)

New -High Record Reached

(By Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, This Day. The average net note circulation itt the Dominion during November reached a new record at £9,238,133, an increase of £156,674 above the averagt for October — the previous record figure reports the Government Statistician, The active note circulation hasy been rem'arkably buoyant during the whole of the current calendar year, a feature of particular interest being the increases recorded between July and November, a period when normally there it some seasonal recession. Various factors have contributed to the high level of the note circulation, increases in wage rates and in pension paynients, and the decrease in imemployment, being of special relevance in this connection. In view of the fact that the note circulation has now reached • record level, the following brief resume of the long-period changes in the circulation of bank notes is of interest. The years 1921. and 1922 saw a falling off in the nOte circulation owing to the depression of those years, while a further factor which came into opera-.* tion at about that time was the wider use of cheques by the general public. The low point disclosed by the quartet> ly averages for 1921 and 1922 was £5,944,595 in the September quarter of 1922; the figures for 1923 and 1924 show a reqovery 'to approximately £6,500,000, the net note circulation varying within comparatively narrow limits for several years afterward. The increased use of cheques, referred to above, would account largeiy foh the comparatiye stability of the note circulation during the relatively prosperous years which followed the 192122 slump, and no iharked upward trend is revealed 'by the figures until the last two years. The note circulation fell away- during the 1930-33 slump years to a Tninirrmrp of £5,496,000 in July, 1931, and seldom exceeded £6,300,000 during the yeiis following. The 1931-32 fall in the note circulation was, however, not by apy means as severe as the fall in the volume of cheque transactions. The year 1935 witnessed a measure of recovery in the note circulation — g. trend which has since accelerated to a remarkable degree.