STATE FINANCES-Costs of Stabilisation

Costs of Stabilisation FOR protagonists of so-called economic reform, improvement in labour productivity is a matter of use of sophisticated machinery, preferably imported. They have little patience with arguments about the close link between productivity and the size and quality of state expenditure on the social infrastructure. All the same the link is palpable, as much for industrial labour as for agricultural labour There can be little hope of worthwhile improvements in labour productivity in agriculture if small farmer and labour households continue to remain bereft of basic health and education facilities. The abysmal state of social infrastructure demands extreme care and selectivity in imposing cuts in public expenditure as part of stabilisation and structural adjustment policies.