planned economy

American  

noun

1. an economic system in which the government controls and regulates production, distribution, prices, etc.

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planned economy British  

noun

1. another name for command economy

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planned economy Cultural  

1. A type of economy in which some central authority makes a wide range of decisions pertaining to production and wages.

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The former Soviet Union and other communist nations are examples of planned economies.

Etymology

Origin of planned economy

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

planned economy

"I want to make it very clear: the five-year plan is not a planned economy," he told reporters on Tuesday ahead of its publication.

From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026

The economist Friedrich Hayek maintained that a centrally planned economy could not work because the number of relevant and changing facts that the planners would need to know and understand is simply too large.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2025

It was not until later that he learned about the mass layoffs that swept northeastern China in the 1990s, during the country’s shift from a planned economy toward a market-based one.

From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2024

China came out of its Maoist planned economy in the 1980s as a largely rural society, badly in need of factories and infrastructure.

From Reuters ● Sep. 3, 2023

Famine and floods in the mid-1990s all but destroyed the centrally planned economy.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden