Australia has fallen from 19th to 25th in global manufacturing competitiveness over the decade, according to new research.
The Boston Consulting Group’s Cost-Competitiveness Index, released last month, showed Australia had become an increasingly high-cost environment for manufacturers for a number of reasons.
Fairfax notes that the survey found wages in Australia had increased by 48 per cent, the currency had appreciated by 21 per cent, energy costs were up 80 per cent, and productivity had fallen by a percentage point.
“Brazil and Australia were the two worst performing nations in the study and the only countries to experience a decline in cost competitiveness of more than 15 per cent over the past decade,” reports AAP.
Ben Eade from Manufacturing Australia said that Australia needed to follow Switzerland’s lead, which has high costs but also high productivity.
"We still seem to be languishing in Australia with a belief that we can be high cost and low productivity,” Eade told Fairfax.
“We need to turn that around."
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