McKinsey: World economy runs risk of long-term slowdown unless productivity rises sharply
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The world economy, hobbled by aging populations, will slow dramatically over the next 50 years unless countries find ways to increase productivity.
That's according to a report from the McKinsey Global Institute. It says that without big gains in output per worker, global growth will slow to around 2 percent a year over the next half century from an average 3.6 percent the past 50 years.
That would be slower than worldwide growth after the Great Recession or during the energy-crisis decade of 1974 to 1984. Several countries, including Germany, Japan and Russia, are already coping with shrinking labor forces as workers retire.
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McKinsey sees opportunities to raise productivity by improving efficiency in health care and auto manufacturing and by reducing waste in food processing, among other things.