Socialist world market prices. Budapest, Apr 1967 (Budapest, 1969)
SOCIALIST WORLD MARKET PRICES Economists of the socialist countries belonging to the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) have strived since long to shape the price system of inter- CMEA trade in a way most suitable to develop international cooperation and safeguard the interests of each participant country. For their efforts, the International Conference organized by the Permanent Economic Committee of CMEA, April 1967, Budapest, has been of major importance. In this volume we publish studies prepared on the basis of papers submitted to the Conference, reflecting attempts to solve the problem. During the course of discussions mainly dealing with the features of the price system to be applied, some economists advocated creation of an “own” CMEA price basis derived from the production prices of the participating countries. Others, however, raised several arguments against such a special system, suggesting reliance on the price mechanism of the world market, with certain builtin corrections to neutralize the effects of speculative factors and excessive price fluctuations influencing world market mechanism. At the Conference, criticism was launched, although to different extents, on the ineffectiveness of the actual price system applied in CMEA market. In this context, the problems bearing upon the function of market and value relations were also examined.