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

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The average air revenue rate in 1970 was obtained by
adding an arbitrary profit markup of 25 percent to the
estimated 1970 average cost of 12.5 kopecks per tkm.
An average cost of 17.7 kopecks per tkm in 1965 is
given in N. N. Barkov, ed., Zheleznedorozhniy trans-
port v sisteme edinoy transportnoy seti USSR, Mos-
cow, Transport, 1967, p. 51. The average cost for
1965 was extrapolated forward to 1970 using the
average rate of decrease of 7 percent per year calcu-
lated from data for 1958-68 published in Flight
International, 25 September 1969, p. 485.
Description of the Index
The physical data for freight transportation are shown
in table B-9.The resulting values for gross revenue of
freight, passenger, and total transportation are shown
in table B-10 in ruble and index format. The sources
for the freight transportation data are as follows:
Mode Physical Measure Sources
Ilail, inland water, Ton-kilometers
sea, air, and oil
pipeline
Transport i svyaz ', p. 17,
and similar tables in
Narkhozy for subse-
quent years.
Ibid, p. 222, and similar
tables in Narkhozy for
subsequent years.
Ibid, p. 204, and similar
tables in Narkhozy for
subsequent years.
Truck Ton-kilometers
Gas pipeline Cubic meters
Ideally, the physical series for gas pipelines should
take account of the increasing average distance that
gas is transported as a result of the exploitation of
Siberian fields. Unfortunately, we do not have suffi-
cient data to estimate changes in the average distance
transported. Hence, no adjustment is made to the gas
pipeline index.
Communications
The index used for the communications sector is
identical to that used for the communications compo-
nent of the consumption index. The methodology and
data used are described by Schroeder and Denton in
JEC, Consumption.
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Trade
Scope and Coverage
The trade sector in Soviet statistics encompasses a
range of activity roughly equivalent to the wholesale
and retail trade sectors in the US classification.
Included are: retail trade, public dining, foreign trade,
film rentals, material-technical supply (concerned
with supplying production enterprises and farms),
wholesale trade (concerned with supplying consumer
goods to retail trade outlets), and agricultural pro-
curement (concerned with state purchasing of farm
products from producers). For a more detailed de-
scription, see Ukazaniya, pp. 748-751.
The index of value added in the trade sector is based
on the assumption that value added is correlated with
the volume of goods processed by the trade sector.
The trade sector is divided into three major branches
(retail trade, wholesale trade which includes material-
technical supply, and agricultural procurement), and
an index is computed of the value in 1970 prices of
goods processed by each branch. The trade index is a
weighted average of the three branch indexes. The
weights are the value added of each branch in 1970.
The coverage of the trade index is nearly complete.
There is no explicit measurement of the activity
associated with foreign trade, but much of this activi-
ty is probably captured in the retail and wholesale
trade indexes. Film rentals are not included, but the
value added associated with them is tiny. The retail
trade index implicitly includes the activities of public
dining enterprises.
An alternative procedure, used in the US accounts, is
to deflate the current-price value of sales in the
various trade channels. It is not employed here be-
cause of the lack of reliable price deflators.
Approved for Release: 2019/07/19 C05210421