Product, Intermediate, part of the aggregate social product utilised during the year to redeem the material resources (raw and other materials, fuel, energy, purchased semi-finished products) used in its production. The rest of the social product is the final social product. In each industry, the intermediate product includes articles intended for productive consumption inside a given industry, unlike the end products supplied to other industries, to the retail network, etc. The share of the intermediate product in the total social product grows on the basis of the development of the social division of labour and deepening specialisation of production, and the economic law of the priority growth of the production of means of production. In the USSR in individual economic sectors its share varies considerably: the higher the level of production specialisation and cooperation, the greater its proportion. It is highest in heavy industry—50 per cent; in the light and food industries and in agriculture it is 20 per cent, and in construction the entire marketable product is final. In each economic link—ministry or industrial association—the volume and structure of the intermediate product must be consonant with the task of maximising the final social product and reducing production costs.