Documents / FOIA release

USSR: Measures of Economic Growth and Development, 1950-80

Central Intelligence Agency · 1982-12-08 · 399 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Joint Committee Print, dated December 8, 1982, gathers studies that the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Intelligence prepared for the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress. It gives estimates of Soviet gross national product for 1950 to 1980, with indexes of industrial production, agricultural production and consumption, and explains the methods and data behind them. The foreword says official Soviet statistics inflate growth and that the CIA measures offer a more accurate picture. The document contains no UFO material.

Approved for Release: 2019/07/19 C05210421 Figure 4 Growth Rates of Soviet GNP and Industry Percent Ii’ Industry GNPiU_' 8 6 2___. 2? 0, *2 1051 55 hi)? as 70 75 so Figure 5 Distribution of Soviet GNP by Sector of Origin Percent 100 7¥o,,o=:;»iw{s 2 ,,‘l_§ifii£;*§ i§£1tIf.lx‘1t‘: mlewgesaemi we zméitséal! s,_ft§,£;§i,M',§ :se%§t;§i eiwema __ tie 80 TI § .3 it if if K 7 < ease 7“~*$s 4 7 i i L ~, ». , ~. 1950 55 60 65 70 75 80 W ~%'” % .4. 13!?‘ As a result of the Soviet Union’s long-term policy of emphasizing industrial development, the share of GNP created in industry has increased steadily from 20 percent in 1950 to 37 percent in 1980. The rate of growth of industry’s share of GNP has been slowing, however, and has changed little in the late 1970s. Among the branches of industry, the machinery and chemicals branches have had the highest growth rates. The machinery share of GNP has risen from 6 percent in 1950 to 14 percent in 1980, while the chemicals share has risen from 1 to 3 percent of GNP.“ Agriculture’s share of GNP has dropped from 31 percent in 1950 to 14 percent in 1980. As discussed above, fluctuation in the index of agricultural produc- tion is the dominant cause of fluctuation in the growth rate of GNP. Since the relative importance of agricul- ture in the Soviet economy probably will continue to " See J EC, Industry, for an analysis of the development of Soviet industry. 17 decrease, the repercussions of its future fluctuations on GNP growth should diminish. The demand for transportation, communications, and trade services is derived for the most part from the growth of industry and construction. Consequently, the share of these three sectors in GNP has grown significantly: Percentage Share of GNP 1950 1960 1970 1980 Transportation 3.9 6.8 8.7 10.3 Communications 0.6 0.7 0.9 l.2 Trade 5.0 6.8 . 7.3 7.7 In particular, the increase in the share of GNP produced in the transportation sector can be attribut- ed to the increasing size of the industrial sector, which relies on transportation to move raw materials and Approved for Release: 2019/07/19 C05210421

Not linked to a story yet.

About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 399 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.