ABSTRACT
One common feature of the postwar economies of Southeastern Europe was their industrialization from a low prewar base. By 1970, industry contributed more to national income and employed more capital, and, if not yet everywhere, also labor than the previously predominant agricultural sector. Fiscal funding provided initial investment among the four Communist regimes. State budgets taxed consumers and state-owned enterprises for their revenues and left no space for state banks, let alone private enterprise. In Bulgaria and Romania, their initial reliance on central planning and ministerial allocation of investment in heavy industry, primarily metals and machinery, shifted only slightly in the mid-1950s to include consumer goods if not agriculture. The Romanian and Albanian Communist leaderships resisted any diversion from heavy industry, in which Romania had the largest base and Albania the smallest. After its break with the Soviet Union in 1948, Tito’s Yugoslavia abandoned central planning from the Belgrade ministries. Their republic counterparts continued the commitment to heavy industry. For non-Communist Greece, its independent National Bank joined the Finance Ministry in promoting industry and shipbuilding.
