Chart of the Day: Headline productivity growth continues to languish

Productivity gain to register a 0.8% decline in 2014.

Five years after the restructuring started in 2010, headline productivity growth remains dismal.

According to a report by DBS, productivity gain is estimated to register a decline of 0.8% in 2014 based on our estimation. That implies an average productivity growth of -0.05% per annum after the restructuring has started in 2010. This is even lower than an already paltry 1.4% per annum growth in the ten years (2005-2009) prior to that.

DBS says that many are worried that little progress has been made on the productivity front and worse still, that policy measures used to drive productivity gain have backfired. The jury is still out on whether restructuring is working but for all the pains sustained by companies due to progressive tightening in foreign manpower policies, a fresh approach may be required.