Trade Balance Shows Ten Million Surplus

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 329, 14 April 1928, Page 12

Trade Balance Shows Ten Million Surplus

FIGURES FOR YEAR NEW RECORDS FOR EXPORTS (From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, To-day. A big expansion in the value of the Dominion’s exports for the first three months of the year as compared with the same period of 1927 is revealed by returns prepared by the Customs Department, while imports show a slight decrease. EXPORTS for the March quarter this year totalled £23,136,710, compared with £16,671,033 last year, an increase of £6,465,677, while the increase for the twelve months ended March 31 is £9,279,693. The excess of exports for the 12 months was £10,542,674, compared with an excess of imports of £2,510,332 for the preceding 12 months, so that there has been an improvement of over £13,000,000. The returns of overseas trade are: Exports. Imports. Excess. Period. £ £ £ Month— March, 1928 . 7,687,503 4,284,032 3,403,471 March, 1927 . 6,450,442 4,692,209 1,758,233 March, Quarter — 1928 . 23,136,710 11,632,290 11,504,420 March, 1927 . 16,671,033 11,995,879 4,675,154 Year ended— March 31, 1928 . 54,962,031 44,419,357 10,542,674 March 31, 1927 . 45,652,338 48,192,670 *2,510,332 ♦Excess imports. The value of exports during the quarter establishes a new record, exceeding by £307,755 the previous record for the first, quarter of 1925. As imports in the first three months of 1925 were entered at £13,123,323, the excess of exports was £9,705,632, a favourable balance that has now been greatly surpassed. The value of exports for the 12 months ended March 31 was £54,962,031, which exceeds the total for 1926-27 by £9,279,693, and the previous record of 1924-25 by £191,873. Imports have fallen by £3,773,313 to £44,419,357, the lowest figure since 1923-24. The apparent favourable balance for the year is £10,542,674, as against an adverse balance in the previous yety of £2,510,332. The surplus does not actually constitute a record, for in 1919-20 there was an excess of exports of £18,614,621. That was due to the heavy shipments in 1919 of produce accumulated during the war-time shortage of shipping, causing the valuation of exports, both in 1919 and in the fiscal year 1919-20 to exceed £50,000,000 for the first time. The favourable balance is, however, easily a record for any period of 12 months since the war period. In comparison with the corresponding period of the previous year, exports have increased by £8,566,94"8 and imports have been reduced by £2,854,330, a total movement of £11,421,278. The comparison with 1924-25 is also noteworthy, as in the year ended June 30, 1925, exports reached the record for a production year of £57,449,976. Though exports for the current season are below those of three years ago, imports have been so greatly curtailed that the favourable balance for nine months is over £4,000,000 greater than in the corresponding period of 1924-25, and actually exceeds the balance for the whole 12 months of that year, which was £6,551,491.