Australia confronts productivity-less future

New research from NAB forecasts that Australia’s productivity will slump to its lowest level in more than 70 years, crimping real wage growth.

NAB expects Australia’s productivity growth to decline to just 0.5% per annum, down from an average of 1.2% per year in the decade before the pandemic.

“With the tailwind from mining likely over, achieving productivity growth around 1.2% per annum is not impossible, but requires a substantial pickup in non-mining productivity, not just a return to trend”, NAB senior economist Taylor Nugent said.