Czechoslovakia’s Economic Problems

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31974, 29 April 1969, Page 6

Czechoslovakia’s Economic Problems

Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) PRAGUE. The narrow, pot holed road stretching 60 miles between Prague and the major industrial city of Pilson tells more about Czechoslovakia’s economic problems than reams of official statistics and political statements. Not even the most antiRussian Czechoslovak would seriously blame the Soviet occupation tanks or even the long winter for the condition of the roads repair, writes Jonathan Randal, of the New York Times News Service. Rather, the road is indicative of the steady decline of Czechoslovakia’s economy, which alone of those of European Communist countries has failed to improve meaningfully since World War 11. Czechoslovaks do blame the Soviet for forcing 20 years of slavish application of Kremlin economics on what once was the most prosperous country in central

Europe, with a living standard rivalling that of France and Germany. But despite popular belief I that the presence of 70.000 I Soviet troops has further hurt | the economy, responsible Czechoslovak economists are 1 convinced that the occupation I has had little direct effect. The economists note that . such basic economic prob- • lems as inflation, unsaleable . stockpiles, and outdated proI ducts have been clearly identified for years. But they complain that neither the dis- - credited regime of Antonin I Novotny before January, IHHB. I nor that of Alexander Dub- • icek before or after the invasion last August have had . the courage to deal effectiver ly with them. ’ Examples of economic paradox abound, many of ■ them rellecting the now- : familiar discrepancies of , Communist economies wrest- ■ ling to adapt the nineteenth i century theories of Marx and ■ Engels to the complexities of the 19605. ! Czechoslovakia. for ex--1 ample, is the second-largest i user of electricity in Europe, i but towns and cities are some- - times blacked out at night I because of power shortages.

! Economists bemoan the stultifying effects of hidden overemployment and com plain that Czechoslovak worklers have forgotten their once traditional taste for work. But official statistics recently showed that the number of unfilled jobs in Prague alone had almost doubled in a year to reach 40.000 openings at the end of 1968. Although told regularly for more than a year that their economy was in serious inflationary straits, Czechoslovaks have yet to be informed

| just what kind of austerity (measures are in the offing. It was only in March that the Czechoslovak Prime Minister (Mr Stanislav Razl) had the courage to say that belti tightening measures had been agreed upon by the authori- : I ties. Characteristically. he i ■ carefully avoided defining > just what the measures were. i and how they would affect ■ the nation. ■ Such is the official hesita•ltion which some local econo- - mists charitably believe is I common to all politicians—-

that a high Government official privately regretted that the austerity measures had not been carried out right after the invasion. "Then, we could have blamed—unfairly to be sure —the Russians for everything and the nation would have believed us," he said, “now. we have waited too long and lost our contact with the i people.” i Such basic indecision has characterised Czechoslovak efforts at economic reform for

most of the present decade. After a negative growth-rate in the early 19605. economists persuaded Mr Novotny of the need for economic reform to provide competition, incentives, and decentralisation. Indeed, the freedom to tinker with the economy is partially credited with setting off the period of political liberation cut short by the Soviet invasion. However, Czechoslovak economists complain that the economic aspects of reform last year were buried under political developments. "Everyone talked about our economic reform," one economist noted, "but the truth of the matter is that the Hungarians have talked much less and done more than we have."