More Warning Signals for the British Economy

I have already mentioned that there were signs of inflationary pressure in the U.S. Wholesale prices in that country were reported on March 18th, in the Financial Times as standing at 105,3, an increase of 4.1% in the last 12 months, The Guardian commented, on March 19th, that this is the highest point since the Korean war. One of the White House economic advisors in the Kennedy era has advocated that the 7 Feredit for investment be suspended and the U.S. Labour Department has been pulling out all the stops to attempt to impose a guiding light for wage increases, Another way in which the U.S.. balance of payments problem is beginning to affect Britain - and, indeed, most of Europe - arises from the fact that U.S. companies are remitting more profits home, This is putting pressure on interests rates because the companies have to borrow locally instead of financing their own investment, Moreover, any general increase in world interest rates throws extra burdens on the primary producing countries, The combined affect of these factors is to create conditions where there could very well be a slowing down in the increase of world trade. The recent improvement in Britain's export performance is entirely due to the general increase in world trade. In fact Britain's performance lagged behind the world (6% as against 8%), Anti-inflaotionary.measures in the U.S. will also tend to hit British exports far more than those of other exporting countries,