Disappointing Productivity Growth: an International Dimension

This is a preview from the National Institute Economic Review, February 2018, no 243

This Box, prepared by NIESR Associate Research Director for Global Macroeconomics Barry Naisbitt and Database Manager Yanitzsa Kazalova, outlines why we downgraded the outlook for productivity growth in the UK in our forthcoming forecasts and analyses whether the UK has been alone in seeing disappointing productivity growth or whether this may be a more general international experience.

"It is clear that productivity since the Great Recession has grown more rapidly in the other major western economies than in the UK, although Italy is the exception to this (see figure 1). But the issue examined here is different – despite the faster productivity growth elsewhere, the question is whether productivity growth in the other major western economies has also disappointed expectations".