produtividade / UM MAU EXEMPLO

Conservatives have sharply criticised Chancellor Gordon Brown for taking Britain in the wrong economic direction, after new figures revealed that the country is suffering its lowest productivity growth for 15 years.

Just 24 hours after figures issued by the Office of National Statistics showed that the UK has just clocked up its weakest quarterly growth rate for 12 years, further official statistics revealed that productivity growth slumped to its lowest level for a decade and a half.

Figures published by the Office of National Statistics show that estimates for productivity for the last quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of the current year have all been revised down, and as a consequence, the first quarter year on year growth rate has also been cut from 1.3% to 0.6%.

Meanwhile, second quarter productivity growth rate is calculated at 0.4%, with year on year growth set at 0.5%, the worst performance since 1990.

At the same time, productivity per hour has grown by 0.3% year on year - the lowest level recorded since measurements began in 1993 - while unit wage costs increases have grown by 3.2%.