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Dept of Trade and Industry

Answer

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on progress with the Public Service Agreement target on the productivity gap relative to other industrialised countries. [23178] Ms Hewitt: The most recent ONS data shows that in 2000, UK productivity on both a "per worker" and "per hour worked" basis was lower than in France, Germany and the US. However, since 1997, the productivity gap on both a per worker and per hour basis has closed slightly with France and Germany. The gap with the US has remained broadly the same on a per hour basis, but has widened on the per worker measure. This is largely the result of the exceptional growth experienced by the US during the second half of the 1990s. The productivity data is available from the December 2001 ONS publication "Economic Trends", available from the Libraries of the House. The Government's aim is to close the productivity gap through policies to encourage enterprise, innovation, investment, competition and the acquisition of skills. The policies have been designed to correct long-standing problems and so we should not expect to see results immediately. However, the slight narrowing of the productivity gap with our European competitors is encouraging.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

377 c266W; 23178

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Manufacturing industries Standards Productivity Trade competitiveness

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk