Going for Growth 2009 published on 3^rd March

According to OECD’s Going for Growth, the current crisis offers governments the opportunity of combining emergency action with the important structural reforms needed to improve long-term growth and resilience in their economies. Going for Growth identifies key reforms to raise living standards in each OECD country. It points out that a number of policies, if carefully implemented, can both boost demand in the short term to soften the impact of the recession, and also raise economic growth over the long term. This ‘double dividend’ is achievable by pursuing policies in a number of areas. They include:

• Introducing infrastructure projects that can be brought onstream quickly or improve the quality of existing facilities, particularly in education.
• Boosting spending on training programmes to give workers skills that will be needed as the labour market recovers.
• Cutting taxes on labour income, particularly for those with low wages. This will help boost consumption and improve long-term job prospects.
• Reform anti-competitive regulations in product markets. Obstacles to businesses entering new markets should be reduced to stimulate the creation of new products and businesses, so boosting demand. Over the long-term stronger competition will help raise productivity and living standards.

The report also has special chapters on taxation and economic growth, infrastructure investment and public policy, the stance of product market regulation, and the effect of population structure on employment and productivity.

As for country specific recommendations for Finland, the report states that the most important priorities are to reduce the tax wedge on labour income, to phase out early retirement pathways and to reform the unemployment benefit system for increasing incentives to work.

Further information: Mr. Lauri Taro, Counsellor, tel. +33 1 45 24 71 71

More information on OECD's website OECD Going for Growth homepage