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products. During the postwar period, however, imports of these products have been greatly increased. In the early 1960's, roughly 20% to 25% of total imports were agricultural products, but the percentage has slowly decreased over the years. Despite the slow increase in the output of processed agricultural products, East Germany is first in Eastern Europe in the production of butter, second in the production of meat and whole milk, and second in fish catch.

e. Construction (U/OU)

The construction sector (Figure 24) increased its contribution to the national income from less than 8% in 1960 to 8.7% in 1971. It has been growing at an average annual rate of 7.8% (value basis) since 1965. During 1965-69, the annual rate of growth increased at an accelerated rate, reaching a high of 10.6% in 1969. In 1970 there was a sudden decline in the growth rate of 5.3%, and a slight rise in 1971 to 5.7%.

The construction sector consists of three components: the building industry, the building crafts, and the agricultural cooperative building enterprises. The building industry accounts for the largest portion of the output of the construction sector—67.9% in 1971. During the same year, 21.8% of the total construction was performed by the building crafts, while the remainder, approximately 10%, was accounted for by the agricultural building enterprises.

Slightly more than 85% of the value of output of the building industry is performed by state-owned enterprises; this share has remained relatively stable since 1960. Semistate-owned enterprises accounted for approximately 12% of the building industry's construction in 1971, while private firms accounted for less than 1%. The 1972 results should show a significant decrease in construction by semistate-owned enterprises and an increase for state-owned firms, due to the conversion in early 1972 of semistate-owned enterprises into completely state-owned entities.

The building crafts consists of cooperative handicrafts, which accounted for approximately 69% of the output of this component of the constructions sector in 1971, and private handicrafts. Since 1960, the percentage of the building crafts' volume of construction done by the cooperatives has steadily increased. The same trend should continue and perhaps accelerate because of the state's increased effort to nationalize private enterprises.

Of the three components of the construction sector, the agricultural cooperative building enterprises have experienced the greatest rate of growth in output since 1960. The average annual rate of growth from 1960 to 1971 has been approximately 20%, as compared to 5.6% for the building industry and 6.6% for the building crafts over the same period. The agricultural building enterprises along handled the rapid increases in construction in agriculture resulting from final collectivization in 1960 and from subsequent efforts to increase livestock production and irrigation. They are

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