Imports and Stocks

Extract

In some post-war years, stock changes., through their effect on the level of imports, have been a major cause of balance of payments fluctuations. They have been important again during the past year (see page 5). From statistics of supplies, disposals and stocks of individual commodities, we have therefore tried to separate changes in imports due directly to stock changes from those due to changes in the actual usage of imported commodities. The resulting figures of stock changes are given in table 11 of the Statistical Appendix, where they can be compared with figures of imports.