Since the beginning of the year, and following the strong rise in economic activity which took place in the last six months of 1968, the economy has been going through a phase of stagnation; but there are signs now that this has begun to give way to a recovery. The picture is much in line with the one we suggested in the May Review.

The world economic scene has changed little since May. Devaluation of the franc, which had seemed likely for more than a year, is now an accomplished fact. Otherwise the scene remains dominated, as it has been throughout 1969, by the widespread expectation of an upward revaluation of the deutschemark after next month's elections in West Germany and by the struggle in the United States to control inflation by monetary means. A forecast of the immediate future of the deutschemark now calls, however, for political rather than economic judgement. Similarly in France much will depend upon the rigour of deflationary measures to be introduced by the government and upon the reactions which they may evoke from the trades unions and their members. In this issue, therefore, we direct our main attention to prospects in the United States, where it is at least reasonably clear what aims the authorities will be pursuing in coming months.

It is now ten years since the publication of the Radcliffe Report (Report of the Committee on the Working of the Monetary System (Cmnd 827)), and once again the role of monetary operations is in the forefront of discussion of macro-economic policy.

The study reported on here deals mainly with the competitive position of the United Kingdom office machinery industry, and is part of a wider investigation into the competitiveness of British industry which the National Institute has been undertaking. The article includes a substantial amount of new statistical and other material, much of it obtained from three special inquiries, directed to manufacturers and concessionaires, large users, and retailers, into the structure of the industry and the reasons for its competitive weakness. Details of the coverage of these inquiries, which were conducted in 1967, are given in Appendix II.