Merchandise Imports by Commodity (Value, USD), 1956/57-1958/59_

Event_Log

1. 011955Second Seven-Year Plan launched; First Seven-Year PlanAssociation

   Why this link: Total imports rose from $270.7m (1956/57) to $351.3m (1957/58, +29.8%) to $441.4m (1958/59, +25.6% further, +63.1% cumulative in two years), led by capital-goods categories: machinery imports nearly doubled ($25.0m to $49.3m, +97.2%) and iron-and-steel imports more than doubled ($23.6m to $50.6m, +114.4%) -- a clear capital-goods import surge consistent with Plan Organization-directed, Consortium-oil-revenue-financed infrastructure investment (Khuzestan dams, industrialization) getting underway.

   Caveat: This 3-year window (1956/57-1958/59) sits entirely inside the Second Plan period with no pre-Plan baseline year in the chart itself for a clean before/after comparison -- the within-window acceleration is suggestive rather than a sharp single-year inflection against a flat prior baseline.

   Lag: concurrent, within the Plan's opening years