Productivity Growth key to Competitiveness

Productivity is a key driver of national competitiveness, as it enables firms based in Ireland to compete successfully in international markets by facilitating output to be produced in a more efficient and effective manner. The Council has published a report benchmarking Ireland’s recent productivity performance. Ireland’s labour productivity performance is strong in an international context. Increasing productivity across all sectors remains a significant challenge. Ireland can take advantage of a sizeable competitiveness opportunity if we can avoid the ‘productivity trap’ being experienced by many developed economies. Facilitating enterprise and start-ups, trade, access to finance, skills and infrastructure are key to productivity and competitiveness gains.

Despite considerable shifts in the composition of economic activity in recent years, Ireland’s labour productivity performance is strong in an international context. Starting from a low base, productivity levels and growth rates now exceed those of many of our key competitors.

This Competitiveness Bulletin summarises key facets of Ireland's performance, and sets out a number of policy considerations for increasing productivity growth. The Bulletin is available to download here.