The Slovenian economy is rebounding after a long downturn, experiencing stronger growth, declining unemployment, healthier public finances and renewed income convergence with more advanced European economies. Further reforms are now needed to increase investment, boost productivity, improve living standards and ensure that all Slovenians benefit from inclusive growth, according to a new report from the OECD.

Composite leading indicators continue to point to stable growth momentum in the OECD area

With persisting slower growth worldwide and in China, over-capacity in some heavy industry sectors, declining profitability, and intensifying competition from other, lower-cost emerging economies, corporate behaviour in China needs to change and focus more on efficiency and sustainability.

Living standards in China have greatly improved over the past few decades. Both sustained economic growth and an expansion of the social security system have contributed to a sharp reduction in the number of people in poverty.

The French economy is expanding, the labour market is recovering – albeit gradually - while productivity and the standard of living remain generally high, according to a new OECD report.

Modernisation has mainly been achieved by training young Slovenians to fill new occupations. In contrast, those with obsolete skills tend to retire or become unemployed rather than retrain, leaving Slovenia with persistent long-term unemployment, and amongst the lowest employment rates of older workers in the OECD.

Successful implementation of economic reforms has boosted the Latvian economy, leading to strong growth, rising wages and solid public finances. Further policy action is now needed to accelerate productivity growth, create jobs, drive down poverty, improve living standards and ensure that everyone benefits from more inclusive growth, according to a new report from the OECD.

Estonia: Policy action is needed for stronger and more inclusive growth

The Slovak Republic continues to exhibit robust economic performance. International competitiveness is strong, fiscal and financial policies are prudent, poverty and income inequality are low, and the country’s environmental footprint has improved markedly. Employment is rising, prices have been stable, and the external account is near balance.

Financial globalisation has given international capital flows a central role in the functioning of the global economy and has therefore led to considerable economic research over the past 30 years.

The world economy has picked up momentum, as expanding investment, employment and trade support synchronised growth across most countries, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Outlook.

Economic growth is strengthening in France, supported by consumption and investment, and the labour market is gradually recovering, as past reductions of comparatively high labour and business taxes are starting to take effect. However, GDP and employment growth are still lagging relative to the euro-area average.

Latvia’s economy is growing strongly. Driven by the recovery of exports and investment as well as strong private consumption, real GDP growth is expected to strengthen from 2% in 2016 to around 4% this year and next.

Estonian growth is picking up again strongly in 2017 and the level of activity has finally surpassed its pre-crisis level, almost 10 years after the outset of the financial crisis. However, poverty remains among the highest in the OECD.

Financial inclusion and women entrepreneurship concern policymakers because of their impact on job creation, economic growth and women empowerment.

While India’s per capita income is converging towards that of the richer countries, inequality has drifted up.

Never in the past 30 years has productivity growth been lower than since the 2008 global financial crisis, and never has income inequality been higher than it is today in Japan, and in the OECD area

Changing labour market demand and moving up the global value chain requires high-skilled workers.

With gross government debt of 219% of GDP in 2016, Japan’s fiscal situation is in uncharted territory and puts the economy at risk.

This paper estimates urban and rural poverty rates across five Chinese administrative regions (Shanghai, Liaoning, Guangdong, Henan and Gansu) in 2014 using representative household level data from the China Family Panel Studies survey.

Unemployment is still above 8% in Latvia and contributes to poverty, in part because many unemployed have been without a job for an extended period of time.

celand has been experiencing a tourism boom. The number of tourists visiting annually quadrupled between 2010 and 2016 and shows continued strength. The tourism sector is now the major export earner and is also creating new jobs and supporting new businesses.

OECD CLIs point to stable growth momentum in the OECD area

Luxembourg’s workforce is highly skilled, reflecting the concentration in the country of sophisticated firms in the financial sector and other top-end international services.

Luxembourg’s large foreign-born population is a pillar of the country’s prosperity: they have brought skills and knowledge to many sectors of the economy.

New Zealand ranks highly on most indicators of well-being, but incomes are below the OECD average due to low labour productivity.

Technological change is increasing the productivity of highly skilled workers but creating more challenging labour-market conditions for their low-skilled counterparts.

A key priority in China’s "new normal" period -- where returns on investment are slackening -- is corporate governance, which could lead to enhanced productivity by a better management of resources at the firm level.

While overall poverty is relatively low in France, it can be highly concentrated at the neighbourhood level.

The U.K. economy has weakened in the aftermath of the decision to leave the European Union. Maintaining close ties with the EU and implementing policies to boost productivity will be crucial for maintaining future living standards, according to a new report from the OECD.

Growth has become more inclusive in recent years in Colombia. Strong growth and targeted social policies have reduced absolute poverty.

Over the past decade, sound macroeconomic policies and an improved business environment have helped generate relatively strong GDP growth.

Slovenia has continued to shift from traditional manufacturing to business services and high-tech production. However, not all Slovenians have been included in this progress.

While the Slovenian economy has been successful in bounding forward, it has taken hard falls in the past, and a lack of resilience means it has taken a long time to recover.

The peace agreement will boost economic growth, but to share it fairly Colombia must also achieve better educational outcomes and bring more people into the more productive formal economy.

Ahead of the referendum on Brexit, the OECD was anticipating a significant decrease in economic growth if the decision to leave the EU were taken (Kierzenkowski et al., 2016). As the UK economy has started to slow down, OECD projections remain remarkably valid so far.

OECD CLIs continue to point to stable growth momentum

The Swiss economy has shown considerable resilience to shocks, but economic growth remains slow, and per capita income levels still hover at levels attained before the global economic crisis. Further reforms are needed to restore productivity growth, boost incomes and ensure that today’s high living standards and levels of well-being are passed on to future generations, according to a new report from the OECD.

The database contains indicators capturing structural policies (including institutions, framework condition policies and policies specifically related to labour markets and drivers of productivity and investment such as trade, skills and innovation).

Digitalisation is one of the megatrends affecting societies and labour markets, alongside demographic change and globalisation.

Higher living standards and well-being, as well as convergence with more advanced economies, will depend on achieving higher productivity, which in turn would be boosted by more investment in capital.

This paper explores the connection between “zombie” firms (firms that would typically exit in a competitive market) and bank health and the consequences for aggregate productivity in 11 European countries.

This paper focusses on the link between urbanisation and consumption behaviour in China.

Since the crisis, Estonia has experienced one of the most pronounced declines in the ratio of non-residential investment to GDP in the OECD.

Estonia is highly integrated into the global trade system: it exports approximately 80% of GDP and around half of domestic employment is sustained by foreign demand.

Assuming that immigrants select destinations according to absolute returns to their observable and unobservable human capital, I present a human capital model of migration accounting for taxes, transfers and limited portability of skills.

Stronger integration in global value chains would speed up economic convergence to advanced OECD economies and raise living standards.

Iceland has high living standards, low poverty, high inclusiveness and one of the most sustainable pension systems.

OECD sees global economy strengthening, but says further policy action needed to catalyse the private sector for stronger and more inclusive growth

The paper describes the fiscal framework used in long-term economic scenarios, with some emphasis on revisions made since the 2013 vintage of the long-term model.