THE TRADE BALANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 2, 24 March 1927, Page 16

THE TRADE BALANCE

TOTALS AGAINST ENGLAND THE INVISIBLE CREDITS _ T “ t ', recent statement made by the 9 British Board of Trade to the effect f, that England’s “invisible foreign I credits’’ of 1926 had failed for the first - time since the war to offset the "adverse visible balance" in foreign trade, is, says the “New York Times,” expected to occasion much discussion in London financial circles. The statement had been anticipated from the fact, shown by the board's recent report on exports and imports for 192* that Lngiand’s visible foreign trade of 1926 in merchandise, gold and silver resulted in a net excess cf imports over exports amounting to «£ 478,000,000 ■ as against £387,000,000 in 1925. The London “Economist” at hand last *vee* recalls that a year ago the board estimated England’s "invisible exports” *t £429,000,000, or substantially in excess the visible import surplus. The “Economist" then inquires: “Were they large enough in 1926 to fill this widened gap? The question is not one that can be answered in * 4 paragraph; but one or two posslWj I ties may be mentioned. It is possible a that the ‘tramp’ shipping freight boo© * of the autumn may justify an increase, fl in 1926, of the estimate of net ping earnings, while there are possible g grounds for thinking that recent «*ti- 1 mates of incomes from overseas in* || vestment have been too low. But 1 whether the gap be filled or not, it clear that one effect of the coal Stop' || page has been to postpone the w when London will regain the ability to lend abroad as freely as in P rC ~ war days.”