SOVIET PLANNING CONFERENCE RECOMMENDS IMPROVEMENTS IN ECONOMIC INDICATORS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T01003A001000320002-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 13, 2000
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 7, 1961
• Content Type: BRIEF

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CIA/RR-CB-61-32
Copy No.
? June 1961
CURRENT SUPPORT BRIEF
SOVIET PLANNING CONFERENCE RECOMMENDS IMPROVEMENTS
IN ECONOMIC INDICATORS
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND REPORTS
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This report represents the immediate views of the
originating intelligence components of the Office
of Research and Reports. Comments are solicited.
This document contains information affecting the national defense of
the United States, within the meaning of the espionage laws, Title 18
USC, Sections 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which
in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
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SOVIET PLANNING CONFERENCE RECOMMENDS IMPROVEMENTS
IN ECONOMIC INDICATORS
The calculation and use of industrial performance data by
Soviet planners and economic administrators will be simplified if
a change recommended by a recent planning conference is adopted.
The USSR now reports its industrial growth in terms of the concept
"gross production" (valovaya produktsiya). More detailed analysis
of plant and branch-of-in ustry performance, however, often makes
use of another concept called "commercial production," (tovarnaya
produktsiya) which as a general indicator differs from "gross pro-
duction" principally in that it takes no account of-changes in the
amount of work still in process at the end of an accounting period.
The conference recommended that in the future all analyses of in-
dustrial performance as a whole use the concept "commercial produc-
tion" in constant and in current prices. A press report of the con-
ference activities revealed that, in anticipation of this change
the definition of "commercial production" recently was changed, vir-
tually eliminating the differences between the two concepts.
The planning conference was held 14-18 March, 1/ by the Sci-
entific Research Institute of the State Economic Council (Go.sekb-
nomsovet) pursuant to a directive of the July 1960 Plenum of the
Communist Party, and attended by representatives of the planning
organs, the councils of national economy (sovnarkhozy), enterprises,
and scientific institutions.
On the basis of data presented covering the trial use of .se-
lected value indicators at some 500 industrial enterprises during
the latter half of 1960, the conference agreed that no single indi-
cator could be used to measure the volume of work in all the dif-
ferent branches of industry. The conference therefore recommended
that, in addition to using a single value indicator throughout all
industry, special and different indicators for volume of work be
established for use in the different branches of industry. Indi-
cators studied by the conference, in addition to "gross production"
and "commercial production,'"were: 1) "commercial production ex-
cluding expenditures for materials," 2) an indicator based on stand-
ard costs (normativnaya stoimost' obrabotki), 3) an indicator based
on the value of the inal output c the basic production plus the
value of auxiliary production, and, 4) for certain industries, the
statistic of gross turnover.
As the general indicator the conference recommended use of the
statistic, "commercial production" since it would best insure the
necessary connection between the plan for volume of work and other
financial plans such as the cost plan and the plan for accumulation.
The newspaper report of the conference, however, went ahead to say:
"In separate branches, in accordance with the already
existing arrangement, it will be necessary to calculate
the indicator of commercial production in terms of exemp-
tion from the factory method, that is, including inter-fac-
tory turnover and, at the enterprises having a particular
long cycle of production (heavy industry, shipbuilding, and
a series of others), including the change in the balance of
unfinished work."
7 June 1961 CIA/RR-CB-61-32
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Thus the recommendation of a shift from use of the statistic,
"gross production," to use of the statistic, "commercial produc-
tion," is not a recommendation to shift from "gross" to "commer-
cial" as we now know it, but rather from the present "gross" to
something new.
Detailed discussion of these concepts, became available to
Western analysts in 19.55, 2/ and in subsequent discussions 3/ the
essential difference between these two concepts has remained the
same. For each factory the value of "commercial production" has
represented the value of finished product realized or intended to
be realized, semi-fabricates delivered to others, work of an in-
dustrial nature done for others, work done on the materials of
others, and capital repair work on own equipment .and means:of trans-
port. 4/ "Gross production" differed from "commercial production"
by the inclusion of the value of the materials supplied by others
upon which work is done for others, 5/ by any change in the value
of semi-fabricates produced for own use in further production, the
value of special instruments, forms, models, and appliances pro-
duced for own use, 6/ and by the value of two exceptions which
factories were permitted to add into the value of their "gross
production" but not into the value of their "commercial production."
One of these exceptions was that, in certain branches of industry,
in particular incertain branches of food and light industry, a
factory was allowed to report as production the whole value of an
intermediate product as well as the value of the final product. 7/
The other was that, in branches of industry having a long cycle f
production, such as machine building, the reported value of the
"gross production" included any change, in the value of unfinished
production. 8/
The report of this conference, however, revealed that "com-
mercial production" has already been redefined to include the two
exceptions. Hence the new concept of "commercial production" will
differ from the old concept of "gross production" only by such in-
significant amounts as the value of the materials involved in work
done for others on materials supplied by others and the amount of
change in stocks-of semi-fabricates and special instrumentation,
which in certain branches of food and light industry is disregarded.
7 June 1961
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Analyst:
Sources:
25X1A
1. Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta, 26 Mar 61, p. 2-3. U.
2. an in, e prom inplan predpriyatiya -- orudiye
mobilizatiiy vnutriproizvodstvennykh rezervov" .("The
Tech-Prom-Fin Plan of an enterprise -- instrument of
"I
tion
d
f
uc
mobilization of the reserves internal to^prc
enin, S. " meta 0 ogy ischisleniya tempov ro a valovoy
produktsiy promyshlennosti" ("On the method ogy of the
calculation of the tempos of the growth o grorss produc-
tion in industry"), Voprosy Ekonomiki, 1o. 8, 1955, p.
00-VV. V .
3. Yezhov, A. Soviet Statistics, Fore n Languages Publishing
House, Moscow, , p. ,A ?.. ereafter referred to as
X CGliV V. W W V iG V or u v v r
Iuparadze, rp avoc T nik sonomista (Handbook for the
~~66 h
economist), Moscow, 1 , F - .-rreat er re erre to
as uparadze. .Spravochnik) . U. 4. Kuparadze. Spravoc nik , above), p. 9.
5. Yezhov. Soviet Statist s (3, above), p. 77. 6. Kuparadze . , pravoc ni , above), P. 7.
7. Yezhov. Soy e tati tics (3, above), p. 76.
8. Ibid.
9. .
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