Chen Wensen wrote it.
1 98865438+1October1day, People's Daily published an editorial entitled "Meeting the Tenth Decade of Reform", which pointed out: "The most prominent feature of the new year is that reform will be carried out in a deeper and wider field." At this time, an unavoidable but extremely difficult barrier has been placed in front of China's reform.
With the rapid economic growth brought by the reform and opening up, China's economic train has once again entered the sensitive area of economic cycle, the number of enterprises has increased sharply, and the shortage of materials has become more intense. More and more economic problems point to price, which is the most basic element of market economy. The four-year implementation of the "price dual-track system" exposed its own defects and became the focus of reform in the country.
Historical video: 1988 under the planned economy system before the reform and opening up, the state set the price of almost all commodities, with a box of matches at 20 cents and a catty of salt at 10 cents. The planned price has been maintained for 28 years. With the gradual introduction of market economy system, the incompatibility between planned price and market economy began to appear. The most outstanding performance is that the prices of basic industrial products such as energy and raw materials are too low and the prices of processing industrial products are too high, and the profit difference between them is getting bigger and bigger, which makes the basic industry unable to keep up with the development of processing industry.
Since the early 1980s, the authorities in charge of basic industries have gradually relaxed the strict management of the original plan fixed system, giving enterprises both "planned indicators" and a small number of "unplanned indicators". Products produced by enterprises according to unplanned indicators can be purchased by designated enterprises without planned prices, but they can be sold freely. This policy became the origin of the price dual-track system.
1984 In September, the first national seminar for young and middle-aged economic scientists was held in Moganshan, Zhejiang. 124 reformist youth elites who participated in the seminar were divided into seven groups, including price and rural areas, to learn from each other. For the first time, they collectively voiced their voices and actively participated in policy suggestions for reform within the system. These people include, Ma Kai, Lou Jiwei, Zhang, and many other famous people in China's political, economic and academic circles. It was at this famous "Moganshan Conference" that the price dual-track system was formally born as an economic policy.
In the price group of Moganshan meeting, there was a heated discussion between advocating one-step or step-by-step liberalization of price control, implementing "liberalization" of market supply and demand prices and advocating "deployment" of gradually adjusting prices based on planned economy. Finally, Watson and other scholars integrated the views of all parties, and formed a dual-track price reform idea of "changing first and then adjusting, changing middle and then adjusting" and implementing the combination of liberalization and management. The last report entitled "Two Ideas of Price Reform" was placed on the State Council's desk.
The so-called "dual track system" means that "market track" and "planned track" are parallel, and a material has two prices. The market price is higher than the planned price, the planned distribution ratio is gradually reduced, and the market sales share is gradually expanded. The dual-track system not only avoided the huge impact of one-time price liberalization on the economy, but also continued the spirit of market reform, which was approved by the competent leaders in the State Council and has since become the dominant policy of price reform.
As a unique product of China's special national conditions, the price dual-track system also has its own problems. The parallelism of the two tracks enables speculators to find profit opportunities between the two tracks. Due to the limited supply of materials in the market track, the endless reselling phenomenon makes the market price of materials rise continuously. The profiteering of reselling attracts a large number of producers to join it, resulting in a shortage of various products and further price increases.
At that time, Xinmin Evening News in Shanghai reported the reselling of refrigerators of an aerospace brand. The ex-factory price of a refrigerator is about 1500 yuan, but the price varies greatly after three or four links. The reporter who followed the interview found that the price of a refrigerator at a point of sale after leaving the factory became 1600. The owner of this point of sale thought that it was not necessarily cost-effective to sell in the market, so he sold it to another seller and became 1700 and 1800. Under the dual-track price policy, every link is legal, but every link is reselling.
On the other side of the dual-track system, because of collusion between officials and businessmen, the planned materials are bought at the planned price and then sold to the market at the market price. For the same ton of oil, the planned price 100 yuan, the unplanned price is 644 yuan, and the "dumping" profit is considerable.
Under such circumstances, the price reform of 1988 is regarded as "having to be changed". On May 19, when Deng Xiaoping met with the DPRK delegation, he talked about price reform: "Only by rationalizing prices can we speed up the reform." "Recently, we decided to let go of the sugar price of meat, eggs and vegetables and walk first. Isn't there a story about Guan Yu in China? We may have to pass more "customs" and lay off more "generals" than Guan Gong. It is not easy to get through the customs, and it is very risky. "
The Political Bureau of the Central Committee also held two meetings in May, and the understanding formed at the meeting was that "long-term pain is better than short-term pain", and it is necessary to break through if there are risks. It was reported at the meeting that the price and wage system should be reformed. Xinhua News Agency sent a telegram saying, "China's price reform is a bold move, which will take some risks, but the central government is confident to do it well ..."
In fact, as early as the beginning of the Spring Festival of 1988, all kinds of gossip about price increases were circulating among the people, and the prices of various commodities were also rising quietly, and people's psychology began to fluctuate. In March, the news that the country is about to adjust the retail prices of some major agricultural and sideline products came out, which triggered the first wave of buying frenzy of 1988.
At that time, the director of Shanghai Match Factory said excitedly in a TV interview: "By the end of February this year, there were still 60 million boxes in the warehouse, and 20 million boxes were produced in March. However, in three days in March, 40 million cases were sold at once, and nearly 654.38 billion cases produced in April were sold out! " It is also reported that a resident of Gulou District in Nanjing bought more than 400 boxes of matches at home. Unexpectedly, a fire broke out because children played with fire.
In May, the state decided to liberalize the retail prices of four main non-staple foods, which really confirmed the previous rumors. Since May, the prices of pork and other meat products in central cities across the country have increased by about 70%, and other small commodities have followed suit quickly. Taking Beijing as an example, after the four major non-staple foods were raised, the price increase quickly exceeded the document. Pork rose from $2.5 to $4.9 per catty, eggs rose from $0/.5 per catty to $2.7, and tomatoes sold for up to $8 per catty! Most of the goods except the four major non-staple foods also took the opportunity to raise prices, and the government's red-headed documents completely lost their effectiveness.
The rapid response of society made decision makers almost unexpected. But this is only regarded as a "necessary pain" in the process of reform. From August/0/5, 2005 to August/0/7, 2007, the 10th plenary session of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee was held in Beidaihe, where the preliminary plan for price and wage reform was discussed and adopted in principle. In the process of price reform, by raising and adjusting wages and appropriately increasing subsidies, the actual living standards of the vast majority of employees will not be reduced.
In the early morning of August 19, china national radio broadcast the news of "price breakthrough". The rapid rise in prices has created a huge buying wave. According to the newspaper report at that time, "people like to be confused and buy everything, not only value-added goods, basic consumer goods, but even unsalable goods. They hold the TV with images, buy the electric fan when it can turn, and buy the refrigerator with air conditioning." In remote provinces, such as Guizhou and Yunnan, people even fight in the street to buy wool.
In August alone, the national bank savings deposits decreased by more than 26.8 billion yuan. At that time, in front of banks and savings offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha and other places, the crowds of withdrawals surged and crowded. Due to the emergency of the national treasury, some savings offices and banks have to stop withdrawing money within a few days. In this regard, many depositors are extremely dissatisfied, and some even raise the counter of the savings office emotionally.
On August 28th, the buying frenzy in Shanghai reached its climax, and the municipal government had to take emergency measures to supply salt and matches with tickets. Aluminum pot can only trade in the old for the new, or apply for purchase with a marriage certificate and household registration book. According to statistics, in the first half of 1988, the national general price index rose by 7.3% on the basis of 1987, and rose sharply month by month, reaching 19.3% in July, and the situation was out of control.
On August 30th, the executive meeting of the State Council issued an urgent notice, announcing the further revision and improvement of the price reform plan, which was equivalent to announcing the suspension of price entry. The circular also said: In order to stabilize finance and protect people's interests, the People's Bank of China will start a value-preserving and savings business, so that the interest on long-term deposits for more than three years will not be lower than or slightly higher than the price increase.
From September 26th to 30th, the Third Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Central Committee was held in Beijing. The plenary session formulated macro-control and inflation control policies. "Managing the economic environment and rectifying the economic order" has become the core policy in the post-price breakthrough era, and "managing and rectifying" has become the most fashionable economic term.
The American Business Weekly reported with the title "A detour on the road of China's reform": "Today, China's reform is out of control. In response to the crisis, price reform was frozen last month. The sudden policy change has brought China and foreign investors a period of confusion with uncertain prospects. China is now under emergency control. An economist at the Australian Embassy said, "We are witnessing a carpet campaign aimed at restoring consumer confidence ..."
The lesson of price failure was learned by later leaders, and the price of materials continued to be slowly adjusted under the mechanism of price dual-track system. Until September, 1992, 1, the State Administration of Commodity Price announced that it would hand over the pricing power of 57 1 products to enterprises and delegate the production prices of 22 products to provincial price departments. Although the social reaction is fierce, it is no longer the madness of 1988. At this point, the price breakthrough was officially successful, and the price dual-track system also came to an end. (This article Source: Netease)