The release of the Intergenerational Report (IGR) reinforces that Australia needs to commit to serious economic reform to boost growth, jobs and living standards, according to the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC).
IGR’s forty year outlook for economic growth and national income growth was sobering and demonstrated the need to undertake significant structural economic reform and boost productivity and competitiveness, AFGC CEO Gary Dawson said.
“The report forecasts serious challenges for governments which are having to meeting increasing cost demands with decreasing income, and something is going to have to give if we continue down this path,” he said.
According to Dawson, slowing rates of income and economic growth are due to falling terms of trade and the drop off in mining investment. The challenge, he said, was in re-invigorating Australia’s competitiveness and productivity, in order to drive growth, jobs and investment in our sectors of comparative advantages like food and agribusiness.
“Australia’s $114 billion food and grocery processing sector, the largest manufacturing sector in the Australian economy and employer of 300,000 Australians, is one of those growth sectors, with great potential to drive jobs, growth and investment,” Dawson said.
“A strong emphasis on regulatory reform is required to help reduce the high costs of doing business in Australia and improve the competitiveness of trade exposed sectors like food and grocery.”
Key findings of the IGR include:
- 2.8 per cent real annual GDP growth forecast over the next 40 years, which is below the long term average of 3.1 per cent growth over the last 40 years.
- Income growth is expected to slow down more than economic growth, with real gross national income per person projected to increase by 1.4 percent per annum over the next 40 years, compared to 1.9 per cent growth over the previous 40 years
- A slowdown in Australia's productivity from 2.2 percent annual growth during the 1990s to 1.5 per cent annual growth in the 2000s.
