During the Fifth Five-Year Plan, the East African economy had been exceptionally vibrant. The Empire's free market—or private-sector market, as it could also be called—had expanded wildly and chaotically. With the East African stock market, private financial institutions, and foreign capital adding fuel to the flames, the entire Imperial economy had been flourishing by leaps and bounds.
This had been displayed to the fullest in Bella City. In early 1927 alone, more than a hundred large, medium, and small enterprises had been newly registered in the city.
Such a large number of enterprises naturally drove up the corresponding number of jobs and total urban consumption. Competition in the talent market had been especially fierce, and East Africa's market activity now ranked second only to North America.
Compared with the extraordinarily lax market environment of the United States, although East African government intervention in the market had gradually weakened in recent years, it still could not truly act as merely an "economic night watchman" like the American government.
This was especially true in the state-owned sector. During the Fifth Five-Year Plan, the East African government remained committed to reforming the state-owned enterprise system, and this had greatly affected the market.
Because East Africa's state-owned economy had accounted for such a large share, at its peak it had even exceeded 80 percent. This was more exaggerated than the present share of the Soviet public economy.
Due to the New Economic Policy, the Soviet Union had allowed the private economy to continue existing in recent years. By 1927, Soviet private commerce accounted for more than three-quarters of Soviet national retail turnover, while private shops across the country numbered nearly 400,000.
In industry, Soviet private enterprises created roughly 20 percent of total value. In agriculture, although the land had been nationalized, more than 90