The economy has been growing, but the growth was not sustainable for a number of reasons - after 20 or so years of 'communism' the planned economy started massi

The economy has been growing, but the growth was not sustainable for a number of reasons - after 20 or so years of 'communism' the planned economy started massively missallocating investments, the technical expertise carried over from germany and eastern europe after the war was less and less relevant, and many of the people who got to the top were clueless sociopaths. There was no real pressure for effectivity - it took for example about 10 years to develop a consumer car in a socialist country, and then they could not hit production targets, whereas in the West cars were abundant and cheap. And then there were price controls. The market did not work, because it was forbidden from doing it, and the alternatives did not work either, so the economy went bust.