|
Yugoslavia The Industrial Structure in 1990
By the 1980s, four decades of intensive investment had
yielded significant expansion in the range and depth of Yugoslav
industrial output. In 1986 the largest proportions of national
industrial output came from production of electrical energy (12.5
percent); food processing, machinery, and transport equipment
(each almost 11 percent); textiles (over 10 percent);
metalworking (8.2 percent); and chemicals (6.9 percent). Because
industrial policy in the 1970s emphasized domestic selfsufficiency in manufactured goods, domestic markets received
larger proportions of industrial output from that time; Yugoslav
industry was able to meet a high percentage of domestic demand
for consumer goods under these conditions.
Despite its impressive growth, Yugoslav industry in 1990 was
beset by a number of problems. Imbalances in investment since the
1950s had resulted in an inadequate supply infrastructure for
electrical power, water, and transport. In addition, many
domestic firms were unable to meet customer demands because of
shortages in raw materials, components, and spare parts for
machinery. In some industries, low quality precluded export of
Yugoslav goods. Decentralization of investment decision making in
the 1960s frustrated intersectional and interregional investment.
Neither federal nor republic authorities had sufficient
investment funds to finance expansion of basic industries, and
enterprises were reluctant to place funds outside their home
republics. In this way, republics and provinces became
economically isolated from one another. The 1990 reforms were
designed to improve capital mobility and structural imbalances by
giving the federal government more power in macroeconomic policy
making areas such as investment targeting.
By the end of the 1980s, the agricultural predominance of the
1940s had given way to an industrial system whose diversity
resembled that of the developed West. In 1945 three quarters of
the country's population was employed in agriculture, compared
with 25 percent in 1987. In 1987 agriculture and fishing
contributed only 11 percent of the Yugoslav GMP, compared with 45
percent from manufacturing and mining.
Data as of December 1990
|
