State banks might then be told once again to bankroll wages at loss-making enterprises.

ECONOMIST: China pedals harder

The state-run commercial banks, once the tools of the government and therefore happy to prop up loss-making enterprises, are now more brutal in cutting credit.

ECONOMIST: China

Yet about 100, 000 people have been laid off from loss-making enterprises in Changchun, and evidence of their misery could be seen at a dingier labour exchange in the backstreets.

ECONOMIST: China

He has also been standing up to disgruntled trade unionists in loss-making state-owned enterprises.

ECONOMIST: Romania's reforms

In fact, Mr Singh seems prepared to sell only those loss-making state enterprises the market doesn't really want to buy.

ECONOMIST: After Sonia, Singh steps in | The

This includes the five-year plans, misallocation of resources, loss-making state enterprises, subsidized consumption, corruption and oil export dependence that doomed the Soviet experiment.

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They also recognize it offers much better opportunities for tax collection than the loss-making state enterprises that use political influence to secure breaks.

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Last year Mr Manos was kicked out of New Democracy, the centre-right opposition party, for refusing to oppose reforms at Olympic Airways, Greece's struggling state airline, and other loss-making state enterprises.

ECONOMIST: Greece