Kremlin Economic Reformer Sees No Quick Turnaround

A reformer charged with planning Soviet economic development said Tuesday that there can be no improvement in the country’s crisis-ridden economy in the coming year.

Leonid I. Abalkin, just named a deputy premier amid warnings from other economists of financial collapse, told the Communist Party newspaper Pravda that any hope for a quick turnaround is “groundless illusion.”

“One must be a realist in everything. There can be no improvement in the coming months, before the autumn. And in fact there can be no improvement even over the coming year. We have to recognize that openly,” he said.

His warning followed gloomy assessments given last week to the Congress of People’s Deputies by economists.

Abalkin’s remarks also come against a background of increasing shortages of food and consumer goods and inflation estimated by senior economists at 8% to 10%.

“We have to stabilize the situation and begin solving problems . . . so as to revive in ordinary people a faith in the possibility of real improvements,” he added.

But actual changes for the better can only be expected to begin to be felt by the end of 1990, and then only if radical reform is firmly implemented, Abalkin said.