That pattern met the needs of centralised political control and the policy of import substitution pursued until 1982.

ECONOMIST: All roads lead to Mexico City

Industries that grew up under import substitution policies, such as textiles and drugs, are closing factories or contracting out production.

FORBES: The Ronald Reagan of the Pacific

The central pillar of the policy was import substitution, the belief that India needed to rely on internal markets for development, not international trade - a belief generated by a mixture of socialism and the experience of colonial exploitation.

BBC: India: the economy

That is partly the healthy consequence of liberal economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s: the previous policies of state-led import-substitution tended to concentrate economic activity close to the centres of political power.

ECONOMIST: Productivity in Latin America