PRICES IN NEW ZEALAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 5 January 1931, Page 7

PRICES IN NEW ZEALAND

SHELTERED AND UNSHELTERED INDUSTRIES Tlio latest statistical examination of prices in New Zealand, the results of which are published in a. group of tables in the official “Abstract of Statistics,” shows that the universal fall in prices of primary products has so far had only

a small olTcd. on oilier classes of prices (comments the New Zealand "Herald ). Export prices in November were 33 per cent, lower than in November of last year, llie heaviest fall having been in wool, and the least in meal. The. recorded value of all exports in 11 months of this year was £9,000.000. or nearly 18 per cent., less than in the corresponding period of 1929. Only a fraction of either of these movements has hem registered in any of the index numbers of internal prices. The average wholesale cost of imported goods rose mud April and then fell sharp until July. The revision of the Customs tariff was no doubt the principal cause of a 4 per cent, increase in the following month, and though the decline has been resumed, the index number for November is higher than it was a year ago. Wholesale prices of all commodities arc, however, 4£ pei’ cent, lower than in November of 1929. Retail prices have fallen in the 12 months by only 3 per cent., the, movement having been remarkably regular from month to month, hood prices are shown to he about 5 per cent, lower; in the clothing, drapery, and footwear group, the decline has been rather more; the rent item is only 2 per rent, lower; fuel and light on the average are slightly dearer. The latest compilation of wages is for the September quarter; it shows an index figure slightly higher than at the corresponding period in' 1929. The lag of wholesale prices for finished goods and of retail prices generally behind those for raw materials is a, familiar aspect, of laige economic changes, the explanation being that, the total cost of production is a mulliplicfflion of the cost of materials alone, arid that adjustment of the cost of all processes of manufacture and of ’distribution to a new level is necessarily slow. To a. country such as Now Zealand, in which virtually the whole population is engaged in the production, preparation and carriage of primary products for sale overseas, the fall in prices means an almost proportionate contraction in the national income and the adjustment should he made as speedily as possible unless some sections of the coinmunitv are to enjoy special privileges at the* expense of the impoverishment o those directly engaged in the unsheltered primary industries. Wet. the official calculations show that very little progress has yet been made toward an equitable distribution of the loss in aggregate income. .