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Australia Catch-up in income per capita relative to the upper half of OECD countries has paused since 2011, as growth has lagged, affected by lower commodity prices and reduced resource-sector investments. Inequality remains slightly above the OECD average, both in terms of the Gini coefficient and the share of national disposable income held by the poorest 20%. Inequality has nevertheless been stable since 2000. Greenhouse gas emissions per capita are the highest in the OECD and have changed little over the past two decades. Australia has continued implementing a school reform that gives greater weight to socio-economic factors. More recently, the Review to Achieve Excellence in Australian Schools provides a push to further improve delivery, assessment and evidence base in education. Progress has been made in reducing corporate taxes and the 2018-19 budget includes a commitment to reduce personal income taxes. Enhancing the framework for innovation has been dropped as a stand-alone Going for Growth priority. It nevertheless remains an important policy area, and has thus been integrated with the "framework conditions" priority. Raising medium-term growth should focus on improving the business environment and strengthening competition, boosting skills and improving the efficiency of the tax system. Continued challenges in climatechange policy have warranted inclusion in the key priorities. Growth performance, inequality and environment indicators: Australia C. The gap in labour productivity persists
A. Growth Average annual growth rates (%) GDP per capita Labour utilisation of which: Labour force participation rate Employment rate1 Employment coefficient2 Labour productivity of which: Capital deepening Total factor productivity Dependency ratio
2002-08 1.8 1.0 0.6 0.4 0.0 0.6 0.5 0.1 0.2
2012-18 1.0 0.3 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.8 0.5 0.3 -0.1
Level
Annual variation (percentage points)
2016 33 (31.7)*
2012-16 0.1 (0)*
B. Inequality and environment
Gini coefficient3 Share of national disposable income held by the poorest 20%
GHG emissions per capita4 (tonnes of CO2 equivalent) GHG emissions per unit of GDP4 (kg of CO2 equivalent per USD) Share in global GHG emissions4 (%) * OECD simple average (weighted average for emissions data)
7.3 (7.6)*
0 (0)*
2016 21.7 (10.9)* 0.5 (0.3)* 1.3
Average of levels 2010-16 23 (11.3)* 0.5 (0.3)* 1.3
Gap to the upper half of OECD countries5 Per cent 5
GDP per capita
GDP per hour worked
0
-5
-10
-15
Source: Panel A: OECD, Economic Outlook Database; Panel B: OECD, Income Distribution and National Accounts Databases; United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Database and International Energy Agency (IEA), Energy Database; Panel C: OECD, National Accounts and Productivity Databases. StatLink 2 https://doi.org/10.1787/888933954629