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01/03/2005 - One of the biggest challenges facing many OECD countries is to catch up with top performers that have moved strongly ahead in terms of growth over the past two decades, according to Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth, a new OECD review of structural impediments to growth.
After two decades of strong economic growth in the U.S. and relatively weaker performances in most other OECD countries, the gap in economic prosperity has widened dramatically, according to the OECD's Chief-Economist Jean-Philippe Cotis.
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"Economic catching up, which was widely believed to be automatic, started to stall during the 1980s and degenerated into relative decline during the 1990s," Mr Cotis told a news briefing to present Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth. "Today, GDP per capita in France, Germany or Italy is 30% below US levels and, at current trends, this gap will increase during the next few years."
The publication identifies policy priorities for enhanced economic growth in each of the OECD's 30 member countries, drawing on "benchmark" indicators in respect of a range of areas shown by OECD analysis to be crucial for economic prosperity. These range from labour costs and levels of educational attainment to the administrative conditions affecting business start-ups and foreign direct investment.
Summary documents from Mr Cotis's presentations to the press in London and Paris can be found on the OECD website at www.oecd.org/eco/EconomicPolicyReforms2005. Economic Policy Reforms; Going for Growth is available to journalists from the OECD's Media Relations Division (tel: (33) 1 45 24 97 00).
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