Comparable Output

the commodity output of an industrial enterprise that is produced on the basis of mass or serial production in both the current period and the base period adopted for comparison. The index of comparable output is used to analyze the actual dynamics of the prime cost of industrial output and to establish plan targets for its reduction. The comparable output designated for a planning period is estimated on the basis of the average annual prime cost of the base year and the planned prime cost of the current year. The difference between the two represents the planned savings from reducing prime costs. The ratio of the savings to the average annual prime cost during the base year represents the percentage reduction in the prime cost.

The composition of the comparable output depends on the object of statistical study—an enterprise, an association, or a sector, for example. There are no comparative figures for items recently introduced into production at a particular enterprise, but similar items may have been put into production at other enterprises in the same sector. On a sectorwide level, therefore, newly introduced output constitutes an element of comparable output. In machine building, comparable output includes machines, units, and semifinished products of a certain type, and in the textile industry, particular types of fabrics and yarn of a particular count, for example. The proportion of comparable output in commodity output is up to 100 percent in the coal, petroleum, gas, and electric power industries; up to 90–95 percent in metallurgy, light industry, and food processing; and up to 60–30 percent in machine building.