TRADE & FINANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 March 1939, Page 4

TRADE & FINANCE

BRITAIN’S STRONG POSITION. REDUCTION IN DEFICIT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 14. With only three weeks of the financial year to run, the deficit now amounts to £23,805,012, having been reduced during the week by £29,662,491. Ordinary revenue during the week totalled £5,374,823, making a total to date of £859,731,074, which is £43,511,059 more than at the corresponding date last year. Total expenditure, less self-balancing items and sinking funds, is £883,536,086 compared with £806,064,277 at the corresponding date of 1938 and with the estimate for the present financial year of £948,366,000. The yield from income tax last week was £13,137,000, against £10,307,000 for the corresponding week a year ago. With regard to the trade position, United Kingdom exports for February were valued at £38,052,216, compared with £37,558,722 a year ago. imports amounted to £65,515,512, compared with £75,793,898 in 1938. The value of imports is the lowest for any month for more than two years.

Re-exports for the past month were £4,772,323, against £5.527,706 in February, 1938. For the first two months of this year the fall in the value of imports, compared with the corresponding period of 1938, is nearly Principal decreases in imports are: £20,000,000. Grain, and flour, £1,784,000; meat, £511,000; dairy produce, £1,221,000; iron ore and scrap, £1,137,000; raw cotton, £1,493000; hides and skins, £529,000; papermaking materials, £676,000; rubber, £712,000; iron and steel and manufactures, £1,148,000.