Acta Oeconomica 35/1985 [antikvár]

The new five-year plan prepared during the aftermath of the recession, lasting since 1979, asserts three priorities in economic policy for the period between 1986-1990: maintenance and eonsolidation of the external economic equilibrium; further expansion of enterprise autonomy and the implementation of a market-conform government control; rcsumption of economic growth while external competitivity is improved. Hungárián economic practice is as yet not backed by a consistent theoretical framework or ideology, however it already relies on certain theoretical bases: on the new requirements raised by intensive development and the objective necessity of commodity production under socialism. Although no generál political reform will be implemented in Hungary, it is cssential that the further development of the system of political institutions and the adjustment of the style of politics to the logic of the economic sytem have been put on the order of the day. ín Hungary the year 1985 is the last one of the sixth five-year plan period, and, at the same time, a time of big political campaigns. Among the events the Congress of the Hungárián Socialist Workers' Party in late March and the elections to the National Assembly and to the local councils in early July must be reckoned as outstanding. It all made politics more open and entailed an evaluation of long-term aspects of the economic situation and its discussion. The drawing up of the five-year plan for 1986- 90 is nearing completion and, parallel to that, the larger firms have begun with preparations for their own five-year plans. It appears that the social objectives of the medium-term plan cannot be implemented using the earlier instruments and methods; a radical change is needed in the behaviour of economic units. Therefore, in harmony with planning work, a programme for continuing the reform of economic control and management has been worked out, and economic development in 1985 has alsó started in this spirit. The anxieties are not the same as four or five years ago, but thay are invariably great. The government makes greater efforts than earlier to raise the standards of planning work and, at the same time, "to make planning democratic, that is, to allow different interests and views to conflict with each other already in the course of planning so that all that should influence the plan before approval. The world economic forecast taken as a basis in the plan conception includes better elaborated variants, possibilities and difficulties of the coopération with CMEA countries have been better assessed, and increased attention is given to the social impacts of measures taken to cope with economic problems. Nevertheless, there still are somé uncertainties Acta Oeconomica 35, 1985 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest