The most important characteristic of the national economy is the existing macroeconomic proportions – quantitative and qualitative relationships between various divisions and spheres of social production, industries, territorial-production parts of the national economy.
Each type of national economy has its own characteristics of the formation of macroeconomic proportions. In a planned regulated national economy, they are established centrally, in a market economy – on the basis of supply and demand in the market, in a mixed economy – by the market, taking into account the regulatory influence of the state.
Macroeconomic proportions form a system in which the following types of proportions can be distinguished:
– general economic – represents the relationship between the largest spheres of the national economy (for example, production and consumption, consumption and accumulation, material and intangible production, etc.);
– intersectoral – these are quantitative and qualitative relationships between such industries as industry, agriculture, construction, transport and other industries. They characterize the share of individual industries in the total volume of production and the structure of the sectoral distribution of production and financial resources;
– intra-industry – represent the ratio between interrelated production within one industry: for example, between the production of iron and steel in metallurgy, tractors and combines in agricultural engineering, the production of clothing and footwear in light industry;
– territorial (interregional) – here the ratios are considered within the boundaries of a certain territory or between different economic regions, the distribution of productive forces and the production of products in these areas. They characterize the share of individual regions in the composition of the national income produced and used, the distribution of investments by region;
– interstate – these are quantitative and qualitative relationships between the macroeconomic indicators of individual states, a measure of their participation in the international division of labor. These ratios characterize the share of a given country in world production, for example, grain, oil, gold, etc.
Macroeconomic proportions can also be classified depending on the units of measurement of indicators: natural-material, value, labor. Natural-material proportions characterize the ratio between the production and consumption of certain types of products, for example, between production and consumption, for example, of steel, rolled products, tractors, sugar beet in natural units of measurement (i.e., pcs., kg). The analysis of natural-material proportions is carried out with the help of material balances. Value proportions show the relationship between the individual elements of the value of the gross national product – cash proceeds and incomes in the spheres of material and intangible production; income of enterprises, the state and the population; circulation of goods and money in the national economy. The proportions of the distribution of labor resources characterize the ratio of labor resources between the production and non-production spheres, the city and the countryside, individual industries and regions, etc. Changes in the distribution of labor resources are due to demographic reasons, structural and investment policy, crisis phenomena in the economy, etc.
It should be noted that all proportions are objective in nature and ultimately reflect the distribution of social labor between branches and spheres of the economy that satisfy various social needs.
Proportions add up and change under the influence of:
First, social needs, the change of which leads to a change in the production plans of specific types of products (nomenclature of products, volumes), and this affects the proportions;
secondly, under the influence of scientific and technological progress, the development of which leads to the emergence of new products and technologies, a decrease in the costs of living and materialized labor per unit of output, which contributes to a change in proportions;
Thirdly, the change in proportions is also influenced by such factors as the chosen type of economic growth (extensive or intensive), political events, natural disasters, etc.
Any national economy strives to establish optimal proportions, i.e. those that ensure the most complete satisfaction of social needs at the lowest cost of living and reified labor. From the point of view of reproduction, optimal proportions provide for a qualitative and quantitative correspondence between the structure of social production and social needs.
What proportions are decisive in the national economy? These include, firstly, the proportions between the I and II divisions of material production. They are characterized by the ratios of the volume of output of means of production and consumer goods, the number of people working in each of the divisions, the cost of their main production assets. Secondly, it is the proportions between the funds of accumulation and consumption in the national income. From this proportion depend the pace of expanded reproduction, the solution of social and production problems.
At present, there are stable trends in macroeconomic proportions inherent in most national economies:
– As a result of the increase in the technical level of production, manifested in the growth of the capital-labor ratio, the share of living labor decreases in comparison with the materialized labor;
– high-tech industries are developing at an accelerated pace (energy, mechanical engineering, chemical industry, instrumentation, electronics, etc.);
– the share of the non-production sphere is increasing in comparison with the branches of material production;
– the growth rate of the manufacturing industry is much higher than that of the extractive industry;
– the deepening of the international division of labor leads to higher growth rates of foreign trade turnover compared to the growth of production of goods within the country.
It is important to emphasize that macroeconomic proportions underlie the balance of the national economy. The balance of the national economy means the correspondence between interrelated industries, between the volume of means of production used and the amount of labor force, between the volumes of products produced and the need for them, etc. The basis of balance is proportionality.
In practice, balance and proportionality are usually unstable and constantly violated. For example, economic growth leads to the establishment of new proportions in the economy. There is almost no complete correspondence between industries in real life. Therefore, there is a constant need to maintain a balance by adjusting the proportions between individual spheres and sectors of the economy. In a planned command-and-control economy, proportionality and balance were maintained consciously, during the implementation of central decision-making planning. Formally, this was expressed in the compilation and necessity of fulfilling the balance of the national economy. As for the market economy, here proportionality and balance are established under the influence of natural forces, and in a mixed market economy – under the influence of state regulation.
The balance of macroeconomics can be said only if the value and structure of aggregate demand coincide with similar parameters of aggregate supply, i.e. if the entire product produced is consumed. From the point of view of production, this provides for an appropriate distribution of resources between all branches of production. Suppose that in some market demand begins to fall. This will cause a surplus of marketable products, as a result of which it will be necessary to reduce the price to stimulate demand. At the same time, within the framework of the national economy, there will be a different market where the opposite situation can be observed. Ongoing price changes as a result of fluctuations in supply and demand will indicate an imbalance in the economy. The situation will be normalized as a result of the process of capital transfer, when resources will be directed to those industries where demand exceeds supply, and leave those where there is a different situation.
It should be noted that the economy of Belarus and other CIS countries is dominated by the production of means of production, characterized by high capital, material and energy intensity. This is the main reason for the need to increase demand for investment, raw materials and materials. In addition, in comparison with developed countries, the economy of Belarus is characterized by a low proportion of non-material production. There are several reasons for this situation. One of them is the Marxist theory of productive and unproductive labor, which has not stood the test of time, according to which only labor in material production is productive. Following this theory led to the lack of an adequate approach to material and non-material production, the failure to take into account the product of intangible production in the national income, the residual principle of its financing.
The balance of the Belarusian economy is affected by the lack of its own natural fuel resources, raw materials for a number of industries. Therefore, the import of raw materials and components prevails in Belarus. At the same time, the transition from an administrative-command system to a market economy largely caused the deformation of the entire reproduction cycle. Since the proportions were established in a single country of the USSR, now for such relatively small republics as Belarus, they have turned into external proportions – interstate. Therefore, if structural reforms do not take place, then the problems of balance have to be solved not within the republic, but outside it, on the basis of interstate treaties.
Thus, during the transition to market relations, the national economy of the Republic of Belarus is characterized by a general imbalance. Inflation, the destruction of economic ties have disrupted the commodity-money balance, the balance of monetary incomes and expenditures of the population, the trade balance with other countries and, above all, with Russia. It is necessary to restructure, institutional transformations of the national economy in accordance with the needs of the country and the needs of the world market.