The Improvement in Trade The Board of Trade returns for
July are more encouraging than had been expected. The rise in imports continues steadily ; at £69,000,000 they were £7,000,000 higher than in July, 1935, and in the first seven months of this year have increased by £51,000,000, or 13 per cent. But it is the export figures which are particularly satisfactory. In July they were £5,000,000 higher than in July, 1935, and £3,642,000 higher than in June of this year ; the total figure of £40,000,000 for exports in July was higher than in any month since November, 1930. Re-exports increased by £1,000,000. This rise in our foreign trade is especially welcome at a time when it might be feared that British industry, owing to rearmament . activity, would concentrate on the domestic market. The increase in exports is accounted for almost entirely by manufactured goods, principally machinery, vehicles, and textiles, and the improvement in trade is especially with the U.S.S.R. and the Dominions ; it will have its ; effect also on shipping and invisible exports. Unfor- tunately, the depressed areas have no share in the improvement, as exports of coal, owing to stoppage of trade with Italy, fell by £150,000.
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