On Improving Methods for Forecasting Public Demand

As the Directives of the 24th Congress of the CPSU emphasize, one of the key tasks in the planned management of the national economy is that of further improving the system and methods of management and planning. A substantial part in the performance of this task must be played by scientifically based forecasts of the development of various spheres of economic life and, in particular, the sphere of personal consumption and effective demand - one of the most important and complex areas of economic forecasting. Forecasts of public demand play an important part in the elaboration of concrete measures to raise the material and cultural level of the people, which, as emphasized in the Directives of the 24th Congress of the CPSU, is the principal target of the current five-year plan.