Balance (Inter-Branch) of the Production and Distribution of the Social Product, a component of the balance of the national economy which, aided by a system of indicators, illustrates the main functional orientations in the use of the aggregate social product and provides a quantitative description of the most important socioeconomic results of reproduction. The major feature of this balance is that it indicates the reproduction of the aggregate social product in the totality of its physical and value forms according to a detailed classification of the branches of the economy and of industry. Economico- mathematical methods are extensively employed in drawing up the inter-branch balance. The inter-branch balance of production and distribution is calculated on the basis of full classification but in abbreviated form. It is composed of two tables in which the indicators are expressed in physical terms. The first table lists the branches of material production, including those of industry; while the second is comprised of the most important products. Each branch is represented only by the production of its typical products (the so-called ideal branches) which ensures accuracy in calibrating inter-branch proportions. The main links and proportions of socialist reproduction are basically characterised in value using a system of indicators that consists of four interrelated parts (quadrants). The indicators of the first quadrant illustrate the proportions in which the products of each industry are distributed for the production of products in others, i. e., they describe the process of productive consumption. The second quadrant is composed of indicators showing the use of products for the purposes of productive consumption and accumulation, compensation for losses, and export. The third quadrant shows the primary distribution of the national income, and the fourth illustrates certain processes of its redistribution. Static and dynamic models of the inter-branch balance exist, which permits one to make judgements not only about the development of the economy at the moment of compilation of the balance, but also about the trends in its long-term development. Thus the interbranch balance of production and distribution of products makes it possible to trace how the complex process of expanded reproduction of the aggregate social product evolves from the movement of products in individual branches. This balance enables one to define the coefficients of the direct and total costs of products for the entire totality of branches represented in the balance, and for the economy as a whole; and it gives a description of the relationship between the two subdivisions of social production, between productive and nonproductive consumption, between consumption and accumulation, between the aggregate social product and the final product, and between all elements of the value of the social product. The inter-branch balance of production and distribution is used as the basis for drawing up the inter-branch balance for labour expenditure (in annual totals of workers, or man-hours) and the balance of fixed assets. The first of these describes the basic proportions of social production and inter-branch links expressed in labour expended, and the second, the proportions in which the fixed assets are distributed throughout the economy. This is of key importance for the drawing-up of long-term technical development plans.