PRICES FALL.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1920, Page 5

PRICES FALL.

HIGHEST POINT REACHED,

FEAR OF UNEMPLOYMENT, £y Telegripn.—Press Assn,—Copyright. Received Sept. 19, 11.5 p.m. London, Sept. 18. There are, great fears that there will be considerable unemployment during the coming winter. Trade is already slack, particularly in cotton, woollen, boot, and motoi manufacturing industries. Some thousands of workers were recently discharged, and many factories and mills are working short time. Although food prices are still risrlig, prices of manufactured goods are stationary, or slightly reduced. Manufacturers and wholesalers believe the maximum has been reached, and they are displaying a tendency to reduce prices, owing to a depression in trade and the public'* severely restricted purchases. It is reported that Manchester manufacturers are reducing wholesale prices by live to fifteen per cent.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.

ON THE OTHER HAND.

DEARER CHRISTMAS AHEAD. Received Sept. 19, 11.5 p.m. London, Sept. 18, Official statistics show that there has been 161 per cent, increase in the cost of living Compared with the pre-war figures, and 167 per cent, increase in the prices of foodstuffs. Mr. C. A. McCurdy (the Food Controller), speaking at a. grocers' exhibition, said that owing to the continued rise in food prices, the average working class family's weekly budget wcnld be 9s Gd more this Christmas than for the Christmas of 1919.—Au5.-N.Z. Cable Assn,