Editing Eastern Bloc (section)

===Economic growth===
[[File:Robotron-KC87-1.jpg|thumb|A [[Robotron KC 87]] home computer made in [[East Germany]] between 1987 and 1989]]

There was significant progress made in the economy in countries such as the Soviet Union. In 1980, the Soviet Union took first place in Europe and second worldwide in terms of industrial and agricultural production, respectively. In 1960, the USSR's industrial output was only 55% that of America, but this increased to 80% in 1980.<ref name="ria.ru"/>{{unreliable source?|date=February 2021}}

With the change of the Soviet leadership in 1964, there were significant changes made to economic policy. The Government on 30 September 1965 issued a decree "On improving the management of industry" and the 4 October 1965 resolution "On improving and strengthening the economic incentives for industrial production". The main initiator of these reforms was Premier A. Kosygin. Kosygin's reforms on agriculture gave considerable autonomy to the collective farms, giving them the right to the contents of private farming. During this period, there was the large-scale land reclamation program, the construction of irrigation channels, and other measures.<ref name="ria.ru"/> In the period 1966–1970, the gross national product grew by over 35%. Industrial output increased by 48% and agriculture by 17%.<ref name="ria.ru"/> In the eighth Five-Year Plan, the national income grew at an average rate of 7.8%. In the ninth Five-Year Plan (1971–1975), the national income grew at an annual rate of 5.7%. In the tenth Five-Year Plan (1976–1981), the national income grew at an annual rate of 4.3%.<ref name="ria.ru"/>

The Soviet Union made noteworthy scientific and technological progress. Unlike countries with more market-oriented economies, scientific and technological potential in the USSR was used in accordance with a plan on the scale of society as a whole.<ref>Aleksandr Andreevich Guber. USSR: Intensified Economy and Progress in Science and Technology. Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, 1985. p. 14</ref>

In 1980, the number of scientific personnel in the USSR was 1.4&nbsp;million. The number of engineers employed in the national economy was 4.7&nbsp;million. Between 1960 and 1980, the number of scientific personnel increased by a factor of 4. In 1975, the number of scientific personnel in the USSR amounted to one-fourth of the total number of scientific personnel in the world. In 1980, as compared with 1940, the number of invention proposals submitted was more than 5&nbsp;million. In 1980, there were 10 all-Union research institutes, 85 specialised central agencies, and 93 regional information centres.<ref>Yearbook the USSR. Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, 1982. p. 174</ref>

The world's first nuclear power plant was commissioned on 27 June 1954 in Obninsk.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} Soviet scientists made a major contribution to the development of computer technology. The first major achievements in the field were associated with the building of analog computers. In the USSR, principles for the construction of network analysers were developed by S. Gershgorin in 1927 and the concept of the electrodynamic analog computer was proposed by N. Minorsky in 1936. In the 1940s, the development of AC electronic antiaircraft directors and the first vacuum-tube integrators was begun by L. Gutenmakher. In the 1960s, important developments in modern computer equipment were the BESM-6 system built under the direction of S. A. Lebedev, the MIR series of small digital computers, and the Minsk series of digital computers developed by G.Lopato and V. Przhyalkovsky.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/lebedev |title=Sergey A. Lebedev |publisher=Computer.org |access-date=19 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725052538/http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/lebedev |archive-date=25 July 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Author Turnock claims that transport in the Eastern Bloc was characterised by poor [[infrastructure|infrastructural]] maintenance.<ref name="turnock42">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=42}}</ref> The road network suffered from inadequate load capacity, poor surfacing and deficient roadside servicing.<ref name="turnock42"/> While roads were resurfaced, few new roads were built and there were very few [[Dual carriageway|divided highway]] roads, urban ring roads or bypasses.<ref name="turnock41">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=41}}</ref> Private car ownership remained low by Western standards.<ref name="turnock41"/>

{{multiple image
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| footer            = A [[Trabant 601]] Limousine (left), manufactured between 1964 and 1989; and a [[Wartburg 353]] (right), manufactured between 1966 and 1989; they were made in [[East Germany]] and exported throughout the Eastern Bloc.
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| footer            = A Soviet-made [[ZAZ Zaporozhets|ZAZ-968]], manufactured between 1971 and 1994 (left) and a [[VAZ-2101|VAZ-2101/Lada 1200]], manufactured between 1970 and 1988 (right)
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| footer = A Polish-made [[Fiat 126|Polski Fiat 126p]], manufactured between 1973 and 2000 (left) and an [[FSO Polonez|FSO Polonez 1500]], manufactured between 1978 and 1991 (right)
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| footer = A Romanian-made [[Oltcit Club]], manufactured between 1981 and 1995 (left); and a [[Dacia 1300]], manufactured between 1969 and 2004 (right)
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| footer = A Czechoslovak-made [[Škoda 105]], manufactured between 1976 and 1990 (left); and a [[Tatra 613]], manufactured between 1974 and 1996 (right)
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| image2 = FCC Poděbrady 2017 29a. Zastava 1100.jpg
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| footer = A Yugoslav-made [[Yugo Koral|Zastava/Yugo Koral]], manufactured between 1980 and 2008 (left); and a [[Zastava 101]], manufactured between 1971 and 2008 (right)
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Vehicle ownership increased in the 1970s and 1980s with the production of inexpensive cars in [[East Germany]] such as [[Trabant]]s and the [[Wartburg (car)|Wartburg]]s.<ref name="turnock41"/> However, the wait list for the distribution of Trabants was ten years in 1987 and up to fifteen years for Soviet [[Lada]] and Czechoslovakian [[Škoda Auto|Škoda]] cars.<ref name="turnock41"/> Soviet-built aircraft exhibited deficient technology, with high fuel consumption and heavy maintenance demands.<ref name="turnock42"/> Telecommunications networks were overloaded.<ref name="turnock42"/>

Adding to mobility constraints from the inadequate transport systems were bureaucratic mobility restrictions.<ref name="turnock43"/> While outside of Albania, domestic travel eventually became largely regulation-free, stringent controls on the issue of passports, visas and foreign currency made foreign travel difficult inside the Eastern Bloc.<ref name="turnock43"/> Countries were inured to isolation and initial post-war [[autarky]], with each country effectively restricting bureaucrats to viewing issues from a domestic perspective shaped by that country's specific propaganda.<ref name="turnock43"/>

Severe [[Natural environment|environmental]] problems arose through urban traffic congestion, which was aggravated by pollution generated by poorly maintained vehicles.<ref name="turnock43">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=43}}</ref> Large thermal power stations burning [[lignite]] and other items became notorious polluters, while some hydro-electric systems performed inefficiently because of dry seasons and silt accumulation in reservoirs.<ref name="turnock39">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=39}}</ref> [[Kraków]] was covered by smog 135 days per year while [[Wrocław]] was covered by a fog of [[Chromium|chrome]] gas.{{Specify|date=September 2010}}<ref name="turnock63">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=63}}</ref>

Several villages were evacuated because of copper smelting at [[Głogów]].<ref name="turnock63"/> Further rural problems arose from piped water construction being given precedence over building sewerage systems, leaving many houses with only inbound piped water delivery and not enough sewage tank trucks to carry away sewage.<ref name="turnock64">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=64}}</ref> The resulting drinking water became so polluted in [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]] that over 700 villages had to be supplied by tanks, bottles and plastic bags.<ref name="turnock64"/> Nuclear power projects were prone to long commissioning delays.<ref name="turnock39"/>

The [[Chernobyl disaster|catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Ukrainian SSR]] was caused by an irresponsible safety test on a reactor design that is normally safe,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.insc.anl.gov/neisb/neisb4/NEISB_3.3.A1.html|title=NEI Source Book: Fourth Edition (NEISB_3.3.A1)|date=8 September 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100908155118/http://www.insc.anl.gov/neisb/neisb4/NEISB_3.3.A1.html|archive-date=8 September 2010}}</ref> some operators lacking an even basic understanding of the reactor's processes and authoritarian Soviet bureaucracy, valuing party loyalty over competence, that kept promoting incompetent personnel and choosing cheapness over safety.<ref>{{Cite book|last = Medvedev|first = Grigori|title = The Truth About Chernobyl|publisher = VAAP. First American edition published by Basic Books in 1991|year = 1989|isbn = 978-2-226-04031-2|title-link = The Truth About Chernobyl}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last = Medvedev|first = Zhores A.|author-link = Zhores A. Medvedev|title = The Legacy of Chernobyl|url = https://archive.org/details/legacyofchernoby00medv|url-access = registration|publisher = W. W. Norton & Company|year = 1990|isbn = 978-0-393-30814-3}}</ref> The consequent release of fallout resulted in the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people<ref name="Chernobyl.info">{{cite web|title=Geographical location and extent of radioactive contamination |publisher=Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation |url=http://www.chernobyl.info/index.php?navID=2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630071332/http://www.chernobyl.info/index.php?navID=2 |archive-date=30 June 2007 }} (quoting the "Committee on the Problems of the Consequences of the Catastrophe at the Chernobyl NPP: 15&nbsp;Years after Chernobyl Disaster", Minsk, 2001, pp.&nbsp;5/6 ff., and the "Chernobyl Interinform Agency, Kiev und", and "Chernobyl Committee: MailTable of official data on the reactor accident")</ref> leaving a massive desolate [[Zone of alienation]] containing extensive still-standing abandoned urban development.

[[Tourism]] from outside the Eastern Bloc was neglected, while tourism from other Stalinist countries grew within the Eastern Bloc.<ref name="turnock45">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=45}}</ref> Tourism drew investment, relying upon tourism and recreation opportunities existing before World War II.<ref name="turnock44">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=44}}</ref> By 1945, most hotels were run-down, while many which escaped conversion to other uses by central planners were slated to meet domestic demands.<ref name="turnock44"/> Authorities created state companies to arrange travel and accommodation.<ref name="turnock44"/> In the 1970s, investments were made to attempt to attract western travelers, though momentum for this waned in the 1980s when no long-term plan arose to procure improvements in the tourist environment, such as an assurance of freedom of movement, free and efficient money exchange and the provision of higher quality products with which these tourists were familiar.<ref name="turnock45"/> However, Western tourists were generally free to move about in Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia and go where they wished. It was more difficult or even impossible to go as an individual tourist to East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. It was generally possible in all cases for relatives from the west to visit and stay with family in the Eastern Bloc countries, except for Albania. In these cases, permission had to be sought, precise times, length of stay, location and movements had to be known in advance.

Catering to western visitors required creating an environment of an entirely different standard than that used for the domestic populace, which required concentration of travel spots including the building of relatively high-quality infrastructure in travel complexes, which could not easily be replicated elsewhere.<ref name="turnock45"/> Because of a desire to preserve ideological discipline and the fear of the presence of wealthier foreigners engaging in differing lifestyles, [[People's Republic of Albania|Albania]] segregated travelers.<ref name="2turnock350">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|2006|p=350}}</ref> Because of the worry of the subversive effect of the tourist industry, travel was restricted to 6,000 visitors per year.<ref name="turnock48">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=48}}</ref>

====Growth rates====
Growth rates in the Eastern Bloc were initially high in the 1950s and 1960s.<ref name="turnock23"/> During this first period, progress was rapid by European standards and per capita growth within the Eastern Bloc increased by 2.4 times the European average.<ref name="turnock24"/> Eastern Europe accounted for 12.3 percent of European production in 1950 but 14.4 in 1970.<ref name="turnock24"/> However, the system was resistant to change and did not easily adapt to new conditions. For political reasons, old factories were rarely closed, even when new technologies became available.<ref name="turnock24"/> As a result, after the 1970s, growth rates within the bloc experienced relative decline.<ref name="hardt16">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hardt|Kaufman|1995|p=16}}</ref> Meanwhile, West Germany, Austria, France and other Western European nations experienced increased economic growth in the [[Wirtschaftswunder]] ("economic miracle"), [[Trente Glorieuses]] ("thirty glorious years") and the [[post-World War II boom]].

From the end of World War II to the mid-1970s, the economy of the Eastern Bloc steadily increased at the same rate as the economy in Western Europe, with the non-reformist Stalinist nations of the Eastern Bloc having a stronger economy than the reformist-Stalinist states.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Teichova|Matis|2003|p=152}}</ref> While most western European economies essentially began to approach the [[per capita]] [[gross domestic product]] (GDP) levels of the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Eastern Bloc countries did not,<ref name="hardt16"/> with per capita GDPs trailing significantly behind their comparable western European counterparts.<ref name="hardt17">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hardt|Kaufman|1995|p=17}}</ref>

The following table displays a set of estimated growth rates of GDP from 1951 onward, for the countries of the Eastern Bloc as well as those of Western Europe as reported by [[The Conference Board]] as part of its ''[[Total Economy Database]]''. In some cases data availability does not go all the way back to 1951.
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: left"
|- "
!GDP growth rates in percent for the given years<ref>{{cite web|title=Total Economy Database, November 2016. Output, Labor, and Labor Productivity, 1950–2016|url=https://www.conference-board.org/retrievefile.cfm?filename=TED_1_NOV20161.xlsx&type=subsite|access-date=4 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517180734/https://www.conference-board.org/retrievefile.cfm?filename=TED_1_NOV20161.xlsx&type=subsite|archive-date=17 May 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
!1951
!1961
!1971
!1981
!1989
!1991
!2001
!2015
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|People's Socialist Republic of Albania||6.608||4.156||6.510||2.526||2.648||−28.000||7.940||2.600
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|People's Republic of Bulgaria||20.576||6.520||3.261||2.660||−1.792||−8.400||4.248||2.968
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Hungarian People's Republic||9.659||5.056||4.462||0.706||−2.240||−11.900||3.849||2.951
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Polish People's Republic||4.400||7.982||7.128||−5.324||−1.552||−7.000||1.248||3.650
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Socialist Republic of Romania||7.237||6.761||14.114||−0.611||−3.192||−16.189||5.592||3.751
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Czechoslovak Socialist Republic/[[Czech Republic]]||–||–||5.215||−0.160||1.706||−11.600||3.052||4.274
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Czechoslovak Socialist Republic/Slovakia||–||–||–||–||1.010||−14.600||3.316||3.595
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Soviet Union/Russia||–||7.200||4.200||1.200||0.704||−5.000||5.091||−3.727
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Austria||6.840||5.309||5.112||−0.099||4.227||3.442||1.351||0.811
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Belgium||5.688||4.865||3.753||−1.248||3.588||1.833||0.811||1.374
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Denmark||0.668||6.339||2.666||−0.890||0.263||1.300||0.823||1.179
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Finland||8.504||7.620||2.090||1.863||5.668||−5.914||2.581||0.546
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|France||6.160||5.556||4.839||1.026||4.057||1.039||1.954||1.270
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Germany (West)||9.167||4.119||2.943||0.378||3.270||5.108||1.695||1.700
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Greece||8.807||8.769||7.118||0.055||3.845||3.100||4.132||−0.321
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Ireland||2.512||4.790||3.618||3.890||7.051||3.098||9.006||8.538
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Italy||7.466||8.422||1.894||0.474||2.882||1.538||1.772||0.800
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Netherlands||2.098||0.289||4.222||−0.507||4.679||2.439||2.124||1.990
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Norway||5.418||6.268||5.130||0.966||0.956||3.085||2.085||1.598
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Portugal||4.479||5.462||6.633||1.618||5.136||4.368||1.943||1.460
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Spain||9.937||12.822||5.722||0.516||5.280||2.543||4.001||3.214
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Sweden||3.926||5.623||2.356||−0.593||3.073||−1.146||1.563||3.830
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Switzerland||8.097||8.095||4.076||1.579||4.340||−0.916||1.447||0.855
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|United Kingdom||2.985||3.297||2.118||−1.303||2.179||−1.257||2.758||2.329
|}
The [[United Nations Statistics Division]] also calculates growth rates, using a different methodology, but only reports the figures starting in 1971 (for Slovakia and the constituent republics of the USSR data availability begins later). Thus, according to the United Nations growth rates in Europe were as follows:
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: left"
|-
!GDP growth rates in percent for the given years<ref>{{cite web|title=UN Statistics Division, December 2016. Growth Rate of GDP and its breakdown|url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/dnltransfer.asp?fID=16|access-date=4 August 2017}}</ref>
!1971
!1981
!1989
!1991
!2001
!2015
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|People's Socialist Republic of Albania||4.001||5.746||9.841||−28.002||8.293||2.639
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|People's Republic of Bulgaria||6.897||4.900||−3.290||−8.445||4.248||2.968
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Hungarian People's Republic||6.200||2.867||0.736||−11.687||3.774||3.148
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Polish People's Republic||7.415||−9.971||0.160||−7.016||1.248||3.941
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Socialist Republic of Romania||13.000||0.112||−5.788||−12.918||5.592||3.663
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Czechoslovak Socialist Republic/[[Czech Republic]]||5.044||−0.095||0.386||−11.615||3.052||4.536
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Czechoslovak Socialist Republic/Slovakia||–||–||–||−14.541||3.316||3.831
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Soviet Union/Russia||5.209||5.301||6.801||−5.000||5.091||−3.727
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Ukraine||–||–||–||−8.699||8.832||−9.870
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Lithuania||–||–||–||−5.676||6.524||1.779
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Yugoslavia/Serbia||9.162||1.400||1.500||−11.664||4.993||0.758
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Austria||5.113||−0.144||3.887||3.442||1.351||0.963
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Belgium||3.753||−0.279||3.469||1.833||0.812||1.500
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Denmark||3.005||−0.666||0.645||1.394||0.823||1.606
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Finland||2.357||1.295||5.088||−5.914||2.581||0.210
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|France||5.346||1.078||4.353||1.039||1.954||1.274
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Germany (West)||3.133||0.529||3.897||5.108||1.695||1.721
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Greece||7.841||−1.554||3.800||3.100||4.132||−0.219
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Ireland||3.470||3.325||5.814||1.930||6.052||26.276
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Italy||1.818||0.844||3.388||1.538||1.772||0.732
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Netherlands||4.331||−0.784||4.420||2.439||2.124||1.952
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Norway||5.672||1.598||1.038||3.085||2.085||1.611
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Portugal||6.632||1.618||6.441||4.368||1.943||1.596
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Spain||4.649||−0.132||4.827||2.546||4.001||3.205
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Sweden||0.945||0.455||2.655||−1.146||1.563||4.085
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Switzerland||4.075||1.601||4.331||−0.916||1.447||0.842
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|United Kingdom||3.479||−0.779||2.583||−1.119||2.726||2.222
|}
[[File:Eastern bloc economies GDP 1990.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|Per capita GDP in the Eastern Bloc from 1950 to 2003 (1990 base [[International dollar|Geary-Khamis dollars]]) according to [[Angus Maddison]]]]
<!-- several errors{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: left"
|-
!GDP per Capita, according to the [[UN]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Un statistics Division December 2016, GDP per capita|url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/dnltransfer.asp?fID=9|access-date=7 August 2017}}</ref>
!1970
!1989
!2015
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|United Kingdom||$2,350||$16,275||$44,162
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Italy||$2,112 ||$16,239||$30,462
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Austria||$2,042 ||$17,313||$44,118
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Japan||$2,040 ||$25,054||$34,629
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Soviet Union/Russia||{{color|red|$1,789}}||{{orange|$2,711}}||$9,243
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Ukraine||-||-||$2,022
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Lithuania||-||-||$14,384
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Greece||$1,496 ||$7,864||$17,788
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Ireland||$1,493 ||$11,029||$60,514
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Spain||$1,205||$10,577||$25,865
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Czechoslovak Socialist Republic/[[Czech Republic]]||{{color|red|$1,136}}||{{color|orange|$3,764}}||$17,562
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Czechoslovak Socialist Republic/Slovakia||-||-||$16,082
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|People's Republic of Bulgaria||{{color|red|$1,059}}||{{color|orange|$2,477}}||$6,847
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|People's Socialist Republic of Albania||{{color|red|$1,053}}||{{color|orange|$904}}||$3,984
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Cyprus||$1,004 ||$9,015||$21,942
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Polish People's Republic||{{color|red|$1,000}}||{{color|orange|$2,229}}||$12,355
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Portugal||$935||$6,129||$19,239
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Yugoslavia/Serbia||{{color|red|$721}}||{{color|orange|$4,197}}||$5,239
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Cuba||{{color|red|$653}}||{{color|red|$2,577}}||{{color|red|$7,657}}
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Socialist Republic of Romania||{{color|red|$619}}||{{color|orange|$2,424}}||$9,121
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Hungarian People's Republic||{{color|red|$615}}||{{color|orange|$3,115}}||$12,351
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|China||{{color|red|$111}}||{{color|red|$406}}||{{color|red|$8,109}}
|-style="text-align:center;"
|style="text-align:left;"|Vietnam||{{color|red|$64}}||{{color|red|$94}}||{{color|red|$2,068}}
|} -->
[[File:GDP per capita of the Eastern Bloc.png|thumb|450px|GDP per capita of the Eastern Bloc in relations with the GDP per capita of the United States during 1900–2010]]
The following table lists the level of [[nominal GDP]] per capita in certain selected countries, measured in [[US dollar]]s, for the years 1970, 1989, and 2015:
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: left"
|- "
!Nominal GDP per Capita, according to the [[UN]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Un statistics Division December 2016|url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/dnllist.asp|access-date=7 March 2017}}</ref>
!1970
!1989
!2015
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|United Kingdom||$2,350||$16,275||$44,162
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Italy||$2,112 ||$16,239||$30,462
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Austria||$2,042 ||$17,313||$44,118
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Japan||$2,040 ||$25,054||$34,629
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Soviet Union/[[Russia]]||{{color|red|$1,789}}||{{orange|$2,711}}||$9,243
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Ukraine]]||-||-||$2,022
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Lithuania]]||-||-||$14,384
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Greece||$1,496 ||$7,864||$17,788
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Ireland||$1,493 ||$11,029||$60,514
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Spain||$1,205||$10,577||$25,865
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Czechoslovak Socialist Republic/[[Czech Republic]]||{{color|red|$1,136}}||{{color|orange|$3,764}}||$17,562
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Slovakia]]||-||-||$16,082
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|People's Republic of Bulgaria||{{color|red|$1,059}}||{{color|orange|$2,477}}||$6,847
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|People's Socialist Republic of Albania||{{color|red|$1,053}}||{{color|orange|$904}}||$3,984
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Cyprus||$1,004 ||$9,015||$21,942
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Polish People's Republic||{{color|red|$1,000}}||{{color|orange|$2,229}}||$12,355
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Portugal||$935||$6,129||$19,239
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Yugoslavia/[[Serbia]]||{{color|red|$721}}||{{color|orange|$4,197}}||$5,239
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Cuba||{{color|red|$653}}||{{color|red|$2,577}}||{{color|red|$7,657}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Socialist Republic of Romania||{{color|red|$619}}||{{color|orange|$2,424}}||$9,121
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Hungarian People's Republic||{{color|red|$615}}||{{color|orange|$3,115}}||$12,351
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|China||{{color|red|$111}}||{{color|red|$406}}||{{color|red|$8,109}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
| style="text-align:left;"|Vietnam||{{color|red|$64}}||{{color|red|$94}}||{{color|red|$2,068}}
|}
While it can be argued the [[World Bank]] estimates of GDP used for 1990 figures underestimate Eastern Bloc GDP because of undervalued local currencies, per capita incomes were undoubtedly lower than in their counterparts.<ref name="hardt17"/> [[East Germany]] was the most advanced industrial nation of the Eastern Bloc.<ref name="zwass34">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Zwass|1984|p=34}}</ref> Until the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, East Germany was considered a weak state, hemorrhaging skilled labor to the West such that it was referred to as "the disappearing satellite".<ref name="graubard8">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Graubard|1991|p=8}}</ref> Only after the wall sealed in skilled labor was East Germany able to ascend to the top economic spot in the Eastern Bloc.<ref name="graubard8"/> Thereafter, its citizens enjoyed a higher quality of life and fewer shortages in the supply of goods than those in the Soviet Union, Poland or Romania.<ref name="zwass34"/>

While official statistics painted a relatively rosy picture, the [[Economy of the German Democratic Republic|East German economy]] had eroded because of increased central planning, economic autarky, the use of coal over oil, investment concentration in a few selected technology-intensive areas and labor market regulation.<ref name="lipschitz52">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Lipschitz|McDonald|1990|p=52}}</ref> As a result, a large productivity gap of nearly 50% per worker existed between East and West Germany.<ref name="lipschitz52"/><ref name="Teichova72"/> However, that gap does not measure the quality of design of goods or service such that the actual per capita rate may be as low as 14 to 20 per cent.<ref name="Teichova72"/> Average gross monthly wages in East Germany were around 30% of those in West Germany, though after accounting for taxation the figures approached 60%.<ref name="lipschitz53">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Lipschitz|McDonald|1990|p=53}}</ref>

Moreover, the purchasing power of wages differed greatly, with only about half of East German households owning either a car or a color television set as late as 1990, both of which had been standard possessions in West German households.<ref name="lipschitz53"/> The ''[[East German mark|Ostmark]]'' was only valid for transactions inside East Germany, could not be legally exported or imported<ref name="lipschitz53"/> and could not be used in the East German [[Intershop]]s which sold premium goods.<ref name="zwass34"/> In 1989, 11% of the East German labor force remained in agriculture, 47% was in the secondary sector and 42% in services.<ref name="Teichova72">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Teichova|Matis|2003|p=72}}</ref>

Once installed, the economic system was difficult to change given the importance of politically reliable management and the prestige value placed on large enterprises.<ref name="turnock24">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=24}}</ref> Performance declined during the 1970s and 1980s due to inefficiency when industrial input costs, such as energy prices, increased.<ref name="turnock24"/> Though growth lagged behind the West, it did occur.<ref name="frucht382"/> Consumer goods started to become more available by the 1960s.<ref name="frucht382"/>

Before the Eastern Bloc's dissolution, some major sectors of industry were operating at such a loss that they exported products to the West at prices below the real value of the raw materials.<ref name="turnock25">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Turnock|1997|p=25}}</ref> [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungarian]] steel costs doubled those of western Europe.<ref name="turnock25"/> In 1985, a quarter of Hungary's state budget was spent on supporting inefficient enterprises.<ref name="turnock25"/> Tight planning in [[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]]'s industry meant continuing shortages in other parts of its economy.<ref name="turnock25"/>