07/01/2021

SAPC released its second Research Discussion Paper titled Competitiveness and the South Australian Economy: a source paper

The paper provides a picture of the South Australian economy over the two decades since 2000, with particular regard to areas that underpin the state’s capacity to compete. The focus is on the state’s comparative performance to Australia as a whole, and to other Australian jurisdictions. The picture ceases before the onset of the pandemic, whose full economic impact has yet to be felt. This is an information paper only and contains no recommendations.

The analysis suggests areas of competitive advantage in South Australia, including relatively low hourly labour costs and low-cost commercial office space; electricity supply reliability and airport charges at, or better than, the national average and improving rail freight transit times. The data also point to areas where the state’s underpinnings for competitiveness are weak. These are worsening performance in terms of multifactor productivity growth; a workforce that is less educated, less mobile and older than the national average; relatively low port productivity; and innovation performance below the national average.

The Commission would like to acknowledge and thank the Office of the SA Productivity Commission staff, the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies and the Department for Trade and Investment (DTI) for their contributions to this paper.

From time to time, the Commission produces research discussion papers on a range of topics including productivity performance, competitiveness and selected sectors of the economy. Join our mailing list to receive updates.