Australia's Competitiveness:Reversing the Slide

Abstract

Measures of competitiveness reflect an economy's ability to sell goods and services to the rest of the world and to compete against goods and services produced abroad. Competitiveness has traditionally been gauged by the standard measure of the real exchange rate. However, an alternative exchange rate-based measure based on the relative prices of non-tradables (products not traded on world markets) to tradables (products which are, or which could be, traded internationally) can also be used for this purpose. A third, broader measure devised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) provides another approach. This monograph examines these different measures and suggests policy measures to remedy the collapse in Australia's competitiveness that they reveal.