NEW COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS IN YUGOSLAVIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360608-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 608
• Publication Date: December 4, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360608-7
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL covIDEATi Al,
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPOR'
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
COUNTRY Yugoslavia
SUBJECT Economic - Consumers goods
HOW
PUBLISHED Mouthly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED Belgrade
DATE
PUBLISHED May 1950
LANGUAGE Serbo-Croatian
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFER $I
OF TNS UNITED STATES WITHIN THE NEANI,IG OF ESPIONAGE ACT 60
U. S. C., SI AND IS. AS ANEN030. ITS TRANSMISSION ON THE RITILATION
OF ITS CONTENTS IN ANY MANNIN TO AN UNAUTHORISED PERSON IS PRO.
HISITED RI LAW. REPRODUCTION OF THIS FORM IS PROMINITED.
SOURCE Narodna Drzava.
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
DATE DIST. f Dec 1950
NO. OF PAGES 2
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
NEW COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS IN YUGOSLAVIA
The federal government of Yugoslavia recently issued a series of provi-
sions which regulate rationing, commerce at tied prices, and trade in indus-
trial goods on the free market.
The assortment of industrial articles which come under the federal
guaranteed supply system is broadened. As a result, rationed supplies are
likewise increased in volume. This increase amounts to about 20 percent for
industrial products, and represents over 15 percent more in 1950 than in 191+9
for all products included.
The regulations bringing more goods under rationing are especially sig-
nificant because a uniform system of free pricing in retail selling would
mean that workers eligible for rationed goods would frequently have to pay
high prices for even the most trifling household articles on the free market.
In the future, purchasers eligible for rationed goods will be able to
purchase with points and cash coupons not only textiles and footwear, but
other industrial goods such as dishes, window glass, and various metal,
chemical, wooden, and other industrial products.
A new system of cash coupons for these items, in addition to the old
system cf points for the purchase of textile products, has been introduced.
The old system which restricts agricultural producers in the sale of
their produce at tied prices has been eliminated. The system of commerce
at tied prices, as regulated by the rules mentioned above, does not call
for the crop purchase of all agricultural products, but. only those which
are purchased under compulsory delivery quotas or under contract, and which
are most important for the food supply of the urban and industrial popula-
tion and for industry, such as grain, livestock, fat, milk, dairy products,
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360608-7
beans, potatoes, wool, leather, and industrial crops. Authority is given
to the President of the Council for Commerce in the federal government to
designate other agricultural products which would be purchased at tied
prices. Under this provision, he has already designated fish. The regu-
lations provide further for the crop purchase of wine and apples and some
other agricultural products at tied prices in specified areas.
The plan for trade in industrial and other goods to supply rural
areas at tied prices showed an increase of 35 percent over the 1949 plan,
or 31.4 percent of the actual trade in 1949. Thus the government is al-
locating more goods for commerce at tied prices than in past years.
The rise in prices for industrial goods intended for tied commerce,
averaging 10 to 15 percent, is linked to the price at which they were
bought from the producers, as well as with the problem of maintaining a
balance in the exchange of goods with the rural areas under the tied-
price system.
The new regulations eliminate diversity in the system of pricing
articles on the free market and give complete independence to production
managers of enterprises to set the prices of articles on the free market
according to demand, quality, and assortment. The new regulations eli-
minate the current system of higher commercial prices and lower indivi-
dual prices for industrial goods in the free market, and establish a uni-
form system of prices for industrial goods in the free market. The most
important articles for the living standard of the population such as to-
bacco, salt, matches, kerosene, school equipment, etc., are excluded from
the system of free pricing of industrial goods in the free market. The
old system of uniform prices for retail goods on the free market will ap-
ply to these.
By giving the authority to directors of enterprises and to commercial
undertakings to set prices freely, the long wait for the fixing of uniform
prices by state agencies is eliminated. Directors of enterprises have the
authority to lower prices of articles which are slow to sell, thus reduc-
ing stockpiling of goods not in current demand.
coNEIDENTtAA
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360608-7