. .
. Feedback =========== [TOP] |
Soviet Union Economy - 1991 https://theodora.com/wfb1991/soviet_union/soviet_union_economy.html SOURCE: 1991 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK Overview: The first six years of perestroyka (economic and
political restructuring) have undermined the institutions and processes
of the Soviet command economy without replacing them with efficiently
functioning markets. The initial reforms have featured greater authority
for enterprise managers over prices, wages, product mix, investment,
sources of supply, and customers. But in the absence of effective market
discipline, the result has been the disappearance of low-price goods,
excessive wage increases, an even larger volume of unfinished
construction projects, and, in general, continued economic stagnation.
The Gorbachev regime has made at least four serious errors in economic
GNP: approximately $2,660 billion, per capita $9,130; real growth rate - 2.4% to - 5.0% (1990 est. based on a reconstruction of official Soviet statistics); note--because of the continued unraveling of Soviet economic and statistical controls, the estimate is subject to even greater uncertainties than in earlier years; the dollar estimates most likely overstate Soviet GNP to some extent because of an incomplete allowance for the poor quality, narrow assortment, and low performance characteristics of Soviet goods and services; the - 2.4% growth figure is based on the application of CIA's usual estimating methods whereas the - 5.0% figure is corrected for measurement problems that worsened sharply in 1990 Inflation rate (consumer prices): 14% (1990 est.) Unemployment rate: official Soviet statistics imply an unemployment rate of 1 to 2 percent in 1990; USSR's first official unemployment estimate, however, is acknowledged to be rough Budget: revenues 422 billion rubles; expenditures 510 billion rubles, including capital expenditures of 53 billion rubles (1990 est.) Exports: $109.3 billion (f.o.b., 1989); commodities--petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, metals, wood, agricultural products, and a wide variety of manufactured goods (primarily capital goods and arms); partners--Eastern Europe 46%, EC 16%, Cuba 6%, US, Afghanistan (1989) Imports: $114.7 billion (c.i.f., 1989); commodities--grain and other agricultural products, machinery and equipment, steel products (including large-diameter pipe), consumer manufactures; partners--Eastern Europe 50%, EC 13%, Cuba, China, US (1989) External debt: $55 billion (1990) Industrial production: growth rate - 2.4% (1990 est.) Electricity: 350,000,000 kW capacity; 1,740,000 million kWh produced, 5,920 kWh per capita (1990) Industries: diversified, highly developed capital goods and defense industries; comparatively less developed consumer goods industries Agriculture: accounts for roughly 20% of GNP and labor force; production based on large collective and state farms; inefficiently managed; wide range of temperate crops and livestock produced; world's third-largest grain producer after the US and China; shortages of grain, oilseeds, and meat; world's leading producer of sawnwood and roundwood; annual fish catch among the world's largest Illicit drugs: illegal producer of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for domestic consumption; government has begun eradication program to control cultivation; used as a transshipment country for illicit drugs to Western Europe Economic aid: donor--extended to non-Communist less developed countries (1954-89), $49.6 billion; extended to other Communist countries (1954-89), $154 billion Currency: ruble (plural--rubles); 1 ruble (R) = 100 kopeks Exchange rates: rubles (R) per US$1--0.580 (1990), 0.629 (1989), 0.629 (1988), 0.633 (1987), 0.704 (1986), 0.838 (1985); note--as of 1 April 1991 the official exchange rate remained administratively set; it should not be used indiscriminately to convert domestic rubles to dollars; in November 1990 the USSR introduced a commercial exchange rate of 1.8 rubles to the dollar used for accounting purposes within the USSR and which was still in force on 1 April 1991; on 1 April 1991 the USSR introduced a new foreign-currency market for foreign companies and individuals; the rate will be fixed twice a week based on supply and demand; as of 4 April 1991 the rate was 27.6 rubles to the dollar; Soviet citizens traveling abroad are restricted to buying $200 a year at prevailing rates Fiscal year: calendar year
NOTE: The information regarding Soviet Union on this page is re-published from the 1991 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Soviet Union Economy 1991 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Soviet Union Economy 1991 should be addressed to the CIA. |