International Economic Organizations of the Socialist States [antikvár]

Introduction The world socialist system has now been in existence for more than a quarter of a century. The might of the socialist community keeps increasing: it is making steady economic, scientific and technical progress and gaining prestige and iníluence in the international aréna. Between 1966 and 1970 industrial production in the CMEA countries (the world's most rapidly developing industrial region) increased by 49 per cent. During that period the average annual growth rates of industrial production in those countries amounted. to 8.3 per cent, as compared with 6.5 per cent in tlie European Com mon Markét countries and 3.3 per cent in the United States. The socialist countries' economic successes are especially striking when viewed against the background of economic instability and crisis phenomena in the capitalist world. In 1970, the gross output in the developed capitalist countries increased bya mere 2.7 per cent as against 5 per cent in 1969. Economic growth rates in these countries in 1970 were 50 per cent lower than the average figure for the sixties. In the United States (the major capilalist country) industrial production dropped by about 3 per cent in 1970. A number of capitalist countries recently registered a record high level of unemployment. The official number of unemployed in the United States had reached 5.4 millión by the Ibeginning of 1972, the figure for Britain was one millión. Based on their economic and scientific and techno logical achievements, at the 25th Session of the Council in July 1971 the CMEA countries adopted a Comprehensive 15-20 year Programme for the