News Analysis: UK Slips Down the Productivity League News Analysis: Extra Investment Is Needed in Skills and Equipment to Match the Performance of Rival Economies

Diane Coyle Economics Editor, The Independent (London, England)

ONE OF the big disappoint ments in the performance of the UK economy, both recently and over the longer term, has been the slow growth and relatively low level of productivity. If there is to be any hope of a "new paradigm" that will allow the economy to return to full employment with low inflation, as David Blunkett, the Secretary of State for Education, called for last week, it will depend on a burst of faster growth in the amount of output the economy can produce per unit of input.

The reason is that in the long run improvements in living standards have to keep pace with underlying gains in productivity; any more, and pay rises will ultimately just trigger …

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Publication information: Article title: News Analysis: UK Slips Down the Productivity League News Analysis: Extra Investment Is Needed in Skills and Equipment to Match the Performance of Rival Economies. Contributors: Diane Coyle Economics Editor - Author. Newspaper title: The Independent (London, England). Publication date: August 16, 1999. Page number: 13. © 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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