The returns of Great Britain's overseas trade for August show an encouraging strengthening of the financial position, owing to a considerable reduction in the adverse balance of trade. In the first eight months of the current year the adverse visible balance was only £7,935,000 above that of the same period of 1937, whereas in the first seven months of the year it was £12,600,000 greater. These figures do not take into account the invisible exports in Great Britain's favour. A satisfactory feature of British trade is that the newer and lighter industries-are improving their position in overseas markets, This applies particularly to electrical goods and vehicles, whose combined export values have increased by over nine per cent, while other important manufacturing groups, including chemicals, oils and fats, cutlery and rubber, have maintained their export position. The cycle trade is one of the branches of industry in which Great Britain's position is particularly strong, more than half the world's total exports of bicycles being British. Exports from (Great Britain last year were 831000 bicycles, and among British cycle manufacturers' largest markets are India, Ireland, the African continent, New Zealand, British West Indies, the Straits Settlements and the Argentine. In Great Britain itself there are over ten million cycles in use out of a total of sixty-one million in the world. Good trading is also reported in a kindred industry, the motor car trade. Exports are well maintained, and in the home market some 300,000 new cars, valued at over £60 millions, are sold every year, while the annual sale of second-hand cars in Great Britain is estimated at no less than 700,000, fetching about £50 millions.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.