10.
Trade Trends.
3.
The steady improvement in British trade continues.
lloreover,
as the President of the Board of Trade took occasion to emphasize in
a recent speech, that improvement is not entirely due to rearmament.
"There is," he said, "a solid basis of real recovery, and this
11
Coal
view is aply confirmed by reports from various industries.
ship ents from ports on the river Humber, for instance, from the
end of January to the end of June, were 2,836,000 tons, as compared
with 2,581,000 tons in the corresponding period last year, and
shipments in the last week in June were the highest this year.
It
fell in May
Lerhaps the best general indication of commercial conditions is the expansion of retail trade in lay. According to the usual statistics prepared by the Bank of England, daily retail sales
in May this year were 9.1 per cent higher than in May, 1938.
is true that hitsun - a period of holiday spending
this year and not until June last year; but when every allowance has
been made for this factor, the returns indicate that the recovery
in sales has been a constant one. The influence of freer spending
is most marked in the industrial areas of Great Britain. Comparing
May this year with lay last year, the Midlands district shows the greatest rise, with an increase in sales of 17 per cent in the non- food group of wares, other provincial rises varying from 10 to 14.7 per cent. Total sales for the first four months of the retail year
those for from February to lay were nearly four per cent above
the corresponding period of 1938. It is unlikely that the rate of expansion in June will prove to have been so rapid as in lay, but
there is little doubt that the recent upward trend of sales
being maintained.
is