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The Competitiveness of British Exports Since Devaluation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

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Extract

This article examines from two angles changes in the competitiveness of United Kingdom exports since devaluation. First, it considers both in total and in some area and commodity detail recent changes in the United Kingdom's share of world trade in manufactures, particularly between the periods October 1966/September 1967 and October 1967/September 1968, and compares them with previous changes over the whole period from the mid-1950s. Secondly, it gives the results of some special inquiries conducted at the end of last year among business firms in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa and earlier (and on a smaller scale) in West Germany.

Type
Research Article
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 48 , May 1969 , pp. 31 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © 1969 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

This article was prepared by R. L. Major of the National Institute. It makes use of material collected and made available by the Associated Chambers of Manufactures of Australia and the Bank of New South Wales, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, the University of Stellenbosch, and the IFO—Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung of Munich. The National Institute is most grateful to these bodies for their collaboration and to the firms which responded to the inquiries.

References

note (1) page 31 The National Institute's original post-devaluation forecast implied a break-even point for the dollar value of exports round about mid-1969. (National Institute Economic Review no. 42, November 1967, page 5.)

note (1) page 32 Exports almost certainly gained in Period 1 from the effects of the seamen's strike in the summer of 1966. But the dock strikes in this country which began in September 1967 probably transferred a smaller amount of exports from Period 1 to Period 2, and Period 2 exports probably included also some which had been accelerated in anticipation of a dock strike in the United States in October 1968.

note (2) page 32 Except where otherwise indicated (tables 1 and 2), world exports of manufactures are taken throughout as comprising all exports of goods in sections 5-8 of the Standard Inter national Trade Classification (revised) from the United States, Canada, Japan, Belgium-Luxemburg, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, other than special category exports (of military equipment, etc.) from the United States.

note (3) page 32 The classification by area and commodity group used for the purposes of these calculations was as in table 2, except that ‘non-OECD sterling area’ was divided between the developed countries and the rest. It thus provided 70 area/commodity sectors. Calculations based on different combinations of commodity groups and market areas could, no doubt, give rather different results.

note (1) page 33 R. L. Major, ‘Note on Britain's share in world trade in manufactures, 1954-1966’. (National Institute Economic Review no. 44, page 56.)

note (1) page 34 Details of the replies are available on application to the National Institute.