Productivity growth in Asia and its country origins

Recovery from the global financial crisis of 2008-09 has been notably slow in the European economy, with its growth rate for 2010-14 steady at 0.5 percent per annum on average, relative to 2.1 percent growth in the pre-crisis period of 2000-07 (as represented by 15 member countries of EU prior to enlargement). In contrast, the United States has managed to raise its growth rate to 1.9 percent for 2010-14, and is beginning to return to its long-term growth track. The Asian economy, which has become increasingly autonomous from the Western economies and even contributed to stabilizing the global economy at the time of the global financial crisis, has been maintaining a stable economic growth of 5.3 percent per annum on average during 2010-14. Yet, this represents a slowdown of 1 percentage point from the level recorded in the pre-crisis period. Our study indicates that it is mainly due to the reduction in the growth of total factor productivity (TFP) of the Asian economy.