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> Canada's growth rate has slowed to 3%, and unemployment is 6.2%. In some provinces, including politically explosive Quebec, as many as 9% of workers are without jobs. Massey-Ferguson, one of the flagships of Canadian industry, is laying off two-thirds of its 3,200-man work force; the company lost $19 million last year. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau supported tight monetary and fiscal policies until last year, and the country is still feeling the effects. Trudeau also introduced a prices-and-incomes board in 1969; since then, inflation has been cut in half, to an annual rate of 2.3%.
— Japan's growth has slipped from 15% last year to 10% so far this year—which is sluggish by that country's spectacular standards. Unlike the slumps elsewhere, Japan's is not deliberate. Among the causes: higher prices for Middle Eastern oil, a new miserliness among consumers and a softer U.S. market for many Japanese exports. A few electronics firms, including Hitachi and Toshiba, have put workers on shorter work weeks. Prices rose 7.7% last year, but so far there has been no government campaign to deflate.
In some countries, there is pressure to ease the anti-inflation drives. British union leaders and industrialists argue that unless expansionary measures are taken soon, unemployment may continue to climb and investment may slow to a trickle. Canadian newspapers are becoming increasingly critical of government tolerance of high unemployment.
A few governments are already taking steps. Germany has restored fast-depreciation allowances and reduced the tax on new plant and equipment. Sweden has started to relax its credit controls. Italy is rushing a public-housing bill through Parliament in order to revive its construction industry. As in the U.S., where Washington officials are talking about increasing spending and easing taxes to stimulate business, foreign government leaders hope that expansionary measures can be carried out without firing inflation anew.