Intervational Business More Evenly Balanced: General Progress Noted 4 The mouthly review of Ba ay's, those ruling a year ago.
Bank states:
In the Board of Trade returns for January further encouragement is to be found for the belief that the trade position is slow! improving. Exports of British goods were higher than in any month since the commencement of the coal dispute in April last and, when allowance is made for price declines, the figures leave no room for doubt that the volume of our overseas trade is gradually cxpanding.
Exports of coal amounted to 4,021,000 tons, of a value of £4,783,539, compared with 4,300,000 tons, valued-at £5,365,96], in the preceding month. In January, 1913, the tonnage was 6,070,000, and the value £4,083,933.
Imports in January show a reduction of about £9,000,000 on the figure for the preceding month and are only £5,000,000 higher than in January, 1913. A large part of the reduction in comparison with December, 1921, is due to decreased arrivals of foodstuffs, but volume alone is not responsible, as in this category some important price declines accentuated the effect. of the smaller quantities Tu the case of raw materials the tendency has been a little uneven, but, with one or two exceptions, the quantity ies compare very favourably with The adverse balance of trade in January amounted to only £3,000,- 000, which is the lowest monthly figure recorded since the Armistice and is considerably below the average monthly figure of about: £11,000,000 in 1913.. No definite conclusions, however, can be drawn from the results of one particular month, and, though the movement is in the right direction, it seems quite likely that, to some extent at least, the improvement was only achieved at the expense of deplete ing internal supplies.
The returns covering the direction of British overseas trade for the past year are now available and disclose some very striking changes. The most hopeful deduction to be drawn from the figures is the suggestion that international trade is gradually becoming more evenly balanced and that the various countries of the world are making distinct progress in' their efforts to balance imports with exports. In this connexion the following table, taken from the "Economist," is instructive, for it shows that during the past year Europe as a whole converted the heavy adverse balances with this country which ruled in 1919 and 1920 -into a slightly favourable balance, thus restoring the position prevailing before the war.
1913 1919 1920 1921
Excess of Excess of Excess of Excess of $423 8 eMil £Mil. £Mi. £Mil. ¢ Mil. £Mil, £ Mil. ¢ Mil.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.