Constant Prices

the prices used in the planned socialist economy for planning and measurement of the actual level and rate of growth of aggregate social product and national income.

From the establishment of Soviet power until 1928, constant 1912 prices were used to measure industrial output and compare it to that of prerevolutionary Russia. During the same period, the mining industry used 1911 prices and agriculture 1912–13 prices. Between 1928 and 1950, constant 1926–27 prices were used for state-owned industry, while the output of producer cooperatives between 1932 and 1950 was measured in constant 1932 prices converted into constant 1926–27 prices through use of price indexes. Between 1950 and 1955 industrial output was calculated on the prices charged by enterprises (minus turnover tax) as of Jan. 1, 1952; from 1956 until 1966, similar prices charged as of July 1, 1955, were used. Since 1967, wholesale prices charged as of July 1, 1967, have been used as constant prices in industry.

In agriculture, constant 1926–27 prices were used between 1928 and 1950; 1951 prices were used for the years 1950–56, 1956 prices for 1956–58, and 1958 prices for 1958–65. Constant 1965 prices, averaged for the entire USSR, have been in use since 1965. In construction, the volume of capital investment and of actual construction and installation work is measured through comparative cost estimates for which prices as of Jan. 1, 1969, have been adopted as constant prices. For comparisons of growth rates in gross social product and national income, the following constant prices have been used: 1926–27 prices during 1928–50, 1951 prices during 1951–55, 1956 prices during 1956–58, and 1958 prices during 1959–65. Since 1965, constant 1965 prices have been used. The other socialist countries also use constant prices in planning and statistics, but their periodizations differ from that of the USSR.