Annual change in net material product in the USSR and Eastern Bloc 1970-1990
Based on net material product (NMP)*, the economies of Eastern Europe outgrew the Soviet Union for most of the 1970s and 1980s, apart from the late 1970s and early 1980s when conflict in the Middle East and western recessions led to economic downturns in several COMECON states (particularly Poland). It becomes clear when looking at the combined growth of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union over these two decades that the Soviet Union's economy was by far the largest in the Eastern Bloc, as the overall average is more in line with the USSR's trend line than that of Eastern Europe. Across the Eastern Bloc, the rate of NMP's growth ranged between five and nine percent throughout most of the 1970s, before ranging between two and four percent for most of the 1980s. As communism collapsed in the late 1980s, NMP rates fell drastically across the COMECON region. The average Eastern Europe NMP fell by 12 percent (East Germany's MNP fell by 19.5 percent alone) compared to four percent in the Soviet Union.