In the late 1980s, the government reserved the right to intervene directly in sectors marked by a significant market imbalance and when manipulation of economic regulators proved insufficient to achieve or restore a state of equilibrium. The government also could intervene directly when a Comecon agreement had to be fulfilled. Means of direct government intervention included allocating resources; adjusting imports, exports, or purchases by producers and distributors; forcing enterprises to accept contracts to supply, for example, important investment projects, the health care system, state reserves, and other areas; designating distribution channels; and prescribing inventory levels. Each year the government decided which enterprises were subject to central intervention, and a list of these enterprises became a part of the annual plan. In the late 1980s, government recourse to central allocation or administrative intervention had become an exception to the rule, and when such intervention did take place, it was in a number of cases only temporary.
Data as of September 1989