A gazdaságirányítási reform küszöbén[On the threshold of reform of economic direction]

The author sums up the lessons learnt in preparing the new system of economic management and deals with key problems to be met in 1968 when implementing the reform. He states that the measures taking effect in 1968 conform to the directives, but the guiding principles of the economic reform will take effect in a clearer form only after a longer period of transition. This requires a new, second phase of developing the economic management system. The annual plan for 1968 had to aim at balanced market relations, as activation of the market mechanism leaves the economy more sensitive to inflation. A similar limit appears because approximation of expectable value and price relations in the economy can only be a rough estimate. These two factors prompt caution dictated by responsibility to society. So it may be assumed that some elements in the regulation system will need modifying by 1 January 1969. Caution becomes manifest, for example, in a tendency to equalize somewhat the initial operating conditions for industries and enterprises. The state cannot suddenly withdraw support from all production branches that in terms of an abstract system of the international market would be non-viable. Economic reform is not a matter of pure economics but a cause for society. In the authors view the real problem in coming years will not be whether the state over-protects enterprises from market effects, but rather of enterprises demanding yet greater protection from the state. With enterprise behaviour the main thing is to avoid boosting production as an end in itself and consider saleability during production. As for government agency behaviour, harm may come from a routine urge to interfere. The author identifies a double task: securing general equilibrium, so that material levers" of faster social progress come into operation; and creating conditions for a rate of increase in living standards characteristic of the 1957-61 period.