XN000022-1978-09-19 — Page 3

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1978

A SHARP FALL WAS OBSERVED IN BOTH THE PRICES AND VOLUME OF TRANSISTORISED RADIOS BECAUSE OF A DROP IN DEMAND FROM THE U.S. MARKET. HOWEVER, THE EXPORT VOLUME OF WATCHES AND CLOCKS INCREASED BY 49 PER CENT, MORE THAN OFFSETTING THE DECREASES IN OTHER CATEGORIES..

IN VOLUME TERMS, CLOTHING, THE PRINCIPAL DOMESTIC EXPORTS, ROSE BY THREE PER CENT AND THIS WAS ALMOST ENTIRELY ATTRIBUTED TO MORE FAVOURABLE DEMAND FOR WOOLEN CLOTHING WHICH ROSE BY 22 PER CENT. EXPORTS OF FOOTWEAR AND ELECTRONIC GOODS BY QUANTITY GREW BY SEVEN PER CENT AND 11 PER CENT RESPECTIVELY.

EXPORT PRICES FOR TEXTILE FABRICS AND YARN WERE DOWN BY SIX PER CENT WHILST VOLUME OF TEXTILE FABRICS GAINED FIVE PER CENT IN CONTRAST TO A DROP OF FIVE PER CENT IN TEXTILE YARN.

THE PRICE AND VOLUME MOVEMENTS OF IMPORTS CLASSIFIED BY END-USE ARE AS FOLLOWS:

CHANGES IN JAN.-JUNE 1978 OVER JAN.-JUNE 1977 (1973-100)

RAW MATERIALS AND

SEMI-MANUFACTURES

CONSUMER GOODS

FOODSTUFFS

CAPITAL GOODS

FUELS

ALL COMMODITIES

IMPORT UNIT VALUES

IMPORT VOLUME

+ 1%

+18%

+12%

+25%

+ 6%

+ 4%

+ 4%

+ 9%

+ 2%

+ 49%

+ 5%

+15%

PRICES FOR RAW MATERIALS BY CATEGORY SHOWED DIFFERING TRENDS. SIGNIFICANT DECLINES IN THE PRICES OF RAW COTTON (-18 PER CENT), COTTON YARN (-7 PER CENT) AND MAN-MADE FIBRES (-7 PER CENT) WERE OBSERVED. ON THE OTHER HAND, PRICES OF OTHER RAW MATERIALS INCREASED ON A MODEST SCALE. MORE ACTIVE EXPORT DEMAND BOOSTED THE IMPORTS OF RAW MATERIALS.

PROMINENT INCREASES IN THE VOLUME OF IMPORTS OF RAW MATERIALS OCCURRED IN RAW COTTON (+24 PER CENT), WOVEN COTTON FABRICS (+36 PER CENT), MAN-MADE FIBRES (+55 PER CENT), YARN AND FABRICS OF MAN-MADE FIBRES (+13 PER CENT), CHEMICAL ELEMENTS AND COMPOUNDS (+26 PER CENT) AND IRON AND STEEL (+24 PER CENT).

IMPORT PRICES OF CONSUMER GOODS CLIMBED STEEPLY BECAUSE OF SHARP INCREASES REGISTERED IN THE PRICES OF FOOTWEAR (+15 PER CENT), DOMESTIC ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT (+11 PER CENT), RADIOS, TELEVISION SETS AND TAPE RECORDERS (+17 PER CENT) AND MOTOR CARS (+12 PER CENT).

/PRONOUNCED