BERLIN BOOM.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1921, Page 5

BERLIN BOOM.

GERMAN INDUSTRY EXPANDS. PROPOSALS OF CREDIT SCHEME. BASIS OF FOREIGN TRADE. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Jan. 7, 7.40 p.m, London, Jan. 6; The Daily Chronicle’s Berlin correspondent states that 1920 has been a record year on the Stock Exchange. The prices of leading shares have risen largely, bank shares averaging a rise of sixty-three per cent., dye companies a hundred per cent., electric companies two hundred per cent., and coal and iron shares 250 per cent, since 1918. The rises are partly due to the fall of the mark, but also to increased and renewed public confidence. The feature of the year has been a rush of thd public to buy industrial shares. The sum of 13,500,000,000 marks have been invested in company shares in 1920. One prominent banker mentioned forty-two cases in which small speculators had become millionaires. In connection with the credit scheme, negotiations are proceeding between the Government, bankers, and insurance companies. The scheme proposed by Sir Edward Mountain involves the Government lending a syndicate of financiers £13,000,000, half of the total required for export credits, the Government being liable for risks to that amount. The syndicate would run the scheme free of all expense to the Government, taking the profits on insurance premiums charged to guarantee merchants’ bills as a reward for services, time, and labor. The Government considers this too favorable to the financiers, but Sir Edward Mountain says that unless some big hazards occur the Government would never be called on to pay a pen-ny.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.