Friday, December 9, 2011

Productivity Grew Worldwide in 2010; Future Unclear

According to data reported Monday by The Conference Board, even though employment lagged in 2010, GDP in most countries recovered well from the financial downturn and productivity grew.

The Conference Board Total Economy Database revealed that, among nations, emerging economies are the ones driving growth, with advanced countries seeing less strength. Currently the U.S. is experiencing stronger growth than Europe, but data indicate that, because of rising employment, in 2011 growth in U.S. productivity will slow and may even fall below that in the European region.

The data also indicate that productivity growth also recovered significantly in emerging economies in 2010, particularly, according to key findings, “in those regions that suffered most from the global crisis such as developing Asia (excluding China and India), Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, and Russia and other countries of the Commonwealthof Independent States.”

The emerging nations China and India are, according to The Conference Board, “the largest and most dynamic economies in productivity terms, with respective productivity growth of 8.7% and 5.4% in 2010.” Other nations seeing upsurges were Turkey; Brazil, which outperformed the region of Latin America as a whole; and Russia, which recovered substantially in productivity growth.

Bart van Ark, senior vice president and chief economist of The Conference Board, said in a statement, “Global productivity growth has recovered remarkably well following the economic and financial crisis. It remains to be seen whether global productivity growth will return to its pre-recession trend as employment picks up momentum in 2011.”

He added, “U.S. productivity growth will be tempered briefly in 2011 as employment recovers from its major recession cutbacks but that's temporary—the underlying productivity growth trend in the United States remains stronger than it is in Europe.”

No comments:

Post a Comment