A statistical report on productivity released by the Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) has shown that Botswana’s productivity slacked in the last decade. Baeti Molake, Executive Director of BNPC said Thursday that when compiling the 2015 productivity statistics report, BNPC used the KLEMS, to calculate productivity for the whole economy covering the period 2000 to 2013.
Molake noted that in the 2015 report, the labour productivity and capital productivity indicators were presented bi-annually, while the multifactor productivity were presented on a yearly basis. A key observation from the labour productivity indicators was that, except for mining and utilities sectors where there have been severe supply shocks, labour productivity has been increasing over the years even though at a decreasing rate.
“Just to give you one specific example on this ÔÇô we note that total factor productivity averaged -2.6% over the period 2003 to 2012,” said Molake.
BNPC said Thursday that the most comprehensive productivity indicators were last compiled and published in the 2007 productivity statistics report, wherein multifactor, capital and labour productivity and unit labour costs were presented for key sectors of the economy covering the period 1980 to 2007. According to the current report, which covers the period 2003 to 2013, output per worker has increased by 0.01 percent, two folds higher than unit labour costs.
Meanwhile, except in mining, water and electricity sectors, labour productivity has been increasing in the other sectors especially construction, trade, communications and personal and social services.
He said, “We have also been able to avail several single factor productivity indicators for various sectors of the economy. These include amongst others ÔÇô labour, productivity, capital productivity and unit labour cost.”
