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

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Weights. The derivation of the 1970 weights for the
sub-indexes is shown in Table 8. Essentially, the task
was to disaggregate the components of the total
weight—retail sales for consumption, collective farm
market sales for consumption, military subsistence,
and consumption in kind. The distribution of retail
sales (the bulk of the total) could be made with
considerable confidence, using published retail sales
data and the assumption that the distribution of sales
to enterprises and institutions was the same in 1970 as
in 1968-69. Lack of data precluded allocation of the
public catering markup, amounting to 2.4 percent of
total retail sales of food and beverages. The distribu-
tions of CFM sales and military consumption are far
less certain, but probably not grossly wrong. The
distribution of consumption in kind is given by the
methodology for estimating its total value and is
thought to be reasonably accurate.
Indexes. The primary data underlying all of the sub-
indexes are given in Appendix B. Ten sub-indexes are
based on officially published data for per capita
consumption expressed in kilograms or units; these
data are converted to total consumption using mid-
year population data. These sub-indexes are: meat,
fish, vegetable oil, milk, eggs, sugar, flour and groats,
potatoes, vegetables, and fruit. Consumption so ob-
tained for milk was reduced by milk used to produce
cheese and butter: consumption of sugar was reduced
to remove sugar used to produce confectionery pro-
ducts: consumption of flour and groats was reduced to
remove flour used in the production of confectioneries
and macaroni. The basic data on per capita consump-
tion are given for 1950, 1958, 1960, and 1964-65 in
Narkhoz I965, p. 597; for 1966-67 in Narkhoz I967,
p. 697; for each year 1968-80 similar data are pub-
lished in the respective year’s Narkhoz in similar
tables. Data for the years 1951-57 and 1959 were
interpolated on the basis of growth rates for produc-
tion of each product over the intervening periods.
While the results for the period as a whole are
reasonably consistent with production data, the rates
of growth for 1951-55 and 1956-58 shown by the
physical consumption data are subject to considerable
and probably varying margins of error. Values for
1961-63 also were obtained by interpolation, by use of
production data, or with data on the value of con-
sumption in current rubles given in Narkhoz 1964,
pp. 580-81. The data required to remove the milk,
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sugar, and flour used in making those products for
which separate sub-indexes are calculated are found
in various statistical handbooks and a variety of other
Soviet sources, as are the data used to calculate
indexes of quality change for confectionery products
and for flour and groats.
Six of the component indexes are based on production
in physical units: margarine, butter, cheese, confec-
tioneries, tea, and alcoholic beverages and soft drinks.
Where necessary and possible, the production data
were adjusted to allow for net imports and net
inventory change. The index for beverages is the sum
of production in dekaliters of 7 products, combined
with 1970 average price weights. Data on imports and
exports are regularly published in the annual trade
handbooks (Vneshnaya torgovlya SSS R). Data on
wholesale and retail inventories were regularly pub-
lished in two tables in the annual Narkhozy (e.g.
Narkhoz 1972, pp. 591, 593) until 1976; the tables
were dropped from the handbooks after 1975, thus
introducing some inaccuracies in the indexes for
subsequent years. The indexes for confectioneries and
flour and groats incorporate indexes ofquality to
reflect changes in product mix. The indexes for
tobacco and macaroni are based on deflated retail
sales, using official Soviet retail price indexes.
Soft Goods
Scope and Coverage. The “soft goods" category com-
prises (1) household purchases of 16 categories of
consumer nondurable goods that are explicitly listed
in Soviet retail trade data, plus an estimated share of
an unidentified residual in those data; (2) household
purchases of similar goods in collective farm mar-
kets-~a minor item; (3) military consumption of such
goods; and (4) consumption in kind of wool. Over four-
fifths of the weight for the category consists of
clothing and footwear and related items. Although the
index for soft goods is based on a sample, it covers 94
percent of the total estimated consumption of these
goods in 1970. The only items separately listed in
Soviet retail trade data that are not specifically
included are fur products and matches. A variety of
odds and ends that are included in residual (unidenti-
fied) retail sales are also excluded, however; the most
important of these are medicines and gasoline.
The index for soft goods is a weighted aggregate of 16
sub-indexes. All but 5 of the 16 pertain to clothing_
and footwear (including fabrics). The weights for the
sub-indexes were derived in a manner consistent with
the derivation of the weight for the category as a
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