SYDNEY: Australia needs to become a lot more productive if it is to maintain its high living standards in coming years, a top central banker said on Tuesday, adding that greater investment in infrastructure would be a major help.
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Deputy Governor Philip Lowe cautioned there were significant challenges ahead as the country's population aged and terms of trade flattened out.
"A substantial increase in productivity growth will be required," Lowe told a conference.
"If this lift does not take place, then we will need to adjust to some combination of slower growth in real wages, slower growth in profits, smaller gains in asset prices and slower growth in government revenues and services."
Lowe said there were some reasons for optimism as a long boom in mining investment was finally feeding through to higher output. The central bank's liaison had also found many firms had responded to the high Australian dollar by becoming more efficient.
One way to boost productivity would be by investing more heavily in infrastructure, particularly in transportation, said Lowe.
"My own view is that there are significant opportunities for additional investment in transportation infrastructure and for using the existing infrastructure more efficiently," he added.
The new Liberal National Government of Tony Abbott has talked of a major expansion in infrastructure investment, but with a budget deep in the red it has not been clear where the funding would come from.
Lowe said there was no shortage of private money waiting to invest in infrastructure.
"The issue is more a reluctance of investors to take on the construction and patronage risks and/or the difficulties of charging for the use of infrastructure," he said.
"The public sector can play an important enabling role, either through use of its own balance sheet directly or through risk-sharing arrangements with the private sector."
It would also help if such projects had ways to generate revenue, perhaps through user pay schemes or levies, though neither were politically palatable, said Lowe.
Comments
Comments are closed.