P.M. BRIEFING : Soviet Balance of Trade Worsens
The Soviet balance of trade worsened in the first three months of the year as Western imports rose, according to a report published today in Pravda.
The first-quarter figures from Goskomstat, the state statistics committee, showed that the Soviet trade gap widened to 600 million rubles ($960 million) from 40 million rubles (64 million) in the same period last year.
Some details on the Soviet economy’s first-quarter performance were released over the weekend by the committee’s first deputy chairman, Nikolai Belov. They showed wages growing twice as fast as productivity, further unmet demand for consumer goods and a slowdown in industrial production.
Today’s report in Pravda, the Communist Party newspaper, which published the full figures, also revealed that first quarter oil production stood at 152 million metric tons--721,000 tons below target. It blamed the poor performance of two oil companies for the shortfall.
Imports outstripped exports by 16.0 billion rubles ($25.6 billion) to 15.4 billion rubles ($24.6 billion).
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