Comments on the present state and the prospects of the hungarian economic reform

The reform of the Hungarian economic mechanism during 1979 and 1982 is discussed. The new administrative constraints on prices are criticized; the first steps towards disintegration of trusts and large enterprises and towards formation of small enterprises and cooperatives are regarded as promising, as are the measures that give more scope to entrepreneurship and legalization of activities in the “second economy.” The relation between growth policy and the economic mechanism as well as the “investment hunger” and the changes of the intensity of shortage are then examined. The future of the reform process is discussed briefly.