Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Jim Cunningham (Labour). It was answered on Thursday, 22 March 2007 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Productivity Rates

Question: Would my right hon. Friend agree that the top productivity levels of the German economy still lag behind those of this country?

Answer: I entirely agree that we are doing especially well in our management of the economy. The advantages that we have over the German economy are our flexible labour markets, our high investment in research and a strong academic base. The latter means that we have good innovations and we are getting better and better at translating those into products and services. The fact is that we have closed the productivity gap with Germany through our management of the macro-economy and other interventions to support productivity and we are being extremely successful.

Secondary information