Structure of the national economy and its types

The word structure (Latin structura) means structure, location, order.

The structure of the national economy is a stable quantitative and qualitative relationship between its various components. Since the national economy is a complex organism, several types of structures can be distinguished in it.

The reproductive structure of the national economy is determined by the fact that all its economic subjects reproduce their production and economic potential on the basis of reproduction of flows of goods and services. Among the three large interrelated groups of such entities (households, enterprises, and the state), a special place, in terms of  reproductive structure, is occupied by the household. It is an important sphere of the national economy, consuming a significant part of the national income, accumulating huge amounts of money, and also acting as the main supplier of labor.

The sectoral structure characterizes the division of the national economy into branches – qualitatively homogeneous groups of economic units that perform the same socio-economic content functions in the process of social reproduction. In the sectoral structure, large national economic branches (industry, agriculture, construction, science, etc.) are distinguished, which have sub-sectors. The sectoral structure plays an important role in the national economy, since it is in the sectoral “section” that planning and forecasting are carried out, the results of the functioning of the national economy are taken into account.

In the structure of the industry of Belarus, the main place belongs to mechanical engineering, forestry, chemical, light, food industries. They provide 9/10 of the gross industrial product of the country. The leading industry – mechanical engineering and metalworking – has a developed diversified structure: tractor and agricultural engineering, automotive, electrical industry, machine tool building, instrumentation, computer technology, etc.

The social structure provides for the division of the national economy into sectors – a set of socio-economic units united by certain socio-economic relations. In each national economy, it is possible to distinguish such sectors by type of work (unskilled, skilled and intellectual labor); by population groups (women, men, youth, disabled); by groups of enterprises (small, medium, large). For economic theory, it is important to divide business entities in accordance with the forms of ownership of the means of production. According to this criterion, the following sectors are distinguished in the Republic of Belarus:

•        state (republican);

•        Municipal;

•        private;

•        Collective;

•        mixed, etc.

The territorial structure is determined by the distribution of productive forces on the territory of the country and means the division of the national economy into economic regions. For example, in the Republic of Belarus, it is possible to distinguish the western and eastern economic regions, which have their own territorial-production complexes, characterized by a certain level of employment of the population, reserves of natural resources.

The infrastructure includes industries serving the national economic complex: transport, banks, credit system, roads and railways, energy, water, gas supply, communications, etc.

The structure of foreign trade is characterized by the ratio of various commodity groups in the volume of exports and imports of goods and services.

In addition, there are also: a) the material and technical structure, which reflects the composition and distribution of the productive forces of society – natural, material and labor resources, as well as the composition and distribution of the national product produced in society; b) the value structure, which reflects the ratio of production volumes, monetary flows, budget revenues and expenditures, the composition of the money supply, etc. These two structures of the national economy have the greatest variability, because they are associated with the process of reproduction and the development of productive forces and are reflected in various kinds of balance sheets, accounts, tables, in economic models.

It should be noted that the national economies of different countries have a different structure. These differences are due to the established approaches to the formation of economies, traditions in production, etc. At the same time, the structure of any national economy tends to become more complicated under the influence of NTP, the expansion and deepening of the division of labor, the specialization of production, the emergence of new and the extinction of old types of production, etc.

In the Republic of Belarus, the need for structural adjustment is due to the fact that:

1)        the country is undergoing a transition from one economic system to another (from a planned-command to a socially-oriented market economy);

2)        the structure of the economy of our republic still firmly preserves the specific features of the division of labor between the republics of the single national economic complex of the USSR, when the needs of the whole country, and not only of Belarus, were taken into account when placing productive forces and dividing labor. As a result, in a country where the population was 10 million people, there were two large automobile plants, a tractor plant, two factories that produce televisions. As a result, our country was actually  an assembly shop that received components from many enterprises of the former Soviet Union.

The existing structure of the economy of the Republic of Belarus is characterized by the fact that:

–        it does not meet the needs of the country as an independent state;

–        there is a very large proportion of material production and especially industries producing means of production (for example, in 2000 the share of products of the engineering and metal products industry was 24.3% of the total industrial output);

–        the national economic complex is dominated by energy-intensive industries that require large expenditures of energy and raw materials, in conditions when the republic does not have natural sources of raw materials and energy;

–        in terms of the number of military equipment per inhabitant, it surpasses many Western European countries.

All this has necessitated the development of a structural adjustment programme that provides:

–        reduction of production of energy-intensive and material-intensive products, as well as re-profiling of part of energy-intensive industries;

–        priority development of knowledge-intensive industries (radio electronics, energy, instrumentation, precision engineering);

–        re-profiling of part of the military industry for the production of consumer goods;

–        accelerated development of the service sector.