The national productivity board annual report 2023

Abstract

The legal notice setting up the National Productivity Board stipulates that the National Productivity Board shall be tasked with ‘preparing an annual report outlining the main competitiveness and productivity challenges facing Malta, and the policy responses required to meet them and any recommendations thereto.’ In this regard, this report shall focus on assessing the relationship between wages and productivity. Chapter 1 to 3 highlights the economic situation of Malta as compared to its European counterparts. As discussed in detail within this report, the Maltese economy has, on average, consistently lagged behind its European counterparts when it comes to labour productivity. Labour productivity for the purpose of this report was defined as the nominal gross value added as a proportion of the total workforce in each economic sector. Given the consensus regarding the importance of wages for productivity, the focus of this report will be centred around assessing the changes in wages and salaries and productivity, understanding the specific challenges and opportunities that have emerged from the assessed relationship between wages and productivity and subsequently provide policymakers with several recommendations intended to mitigate or overcome such challenges.