CANBERRA, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Australia's economy remained in a "malaise" in the second quarter of 2025 despite an uptick in labor productivity, a government report said.
A quarterly productivity bulletin released on Thursday by the Productivity Commission (PC), the federal government's top advisory body on economic, social and environmental issues affecting Australians, said that labor productivity increased by 0.3 percent in the three months to the end of June.
Labor productivity was stagnant in the final quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.
On an annual basis, the PC said in the latest report that labor productivity grew by 0.2 percent in the year to the end of June 2025, down from 1.4 percent in the preceding 12 months.
"Despite signs of improvement, it would be premature to say Australia's productivity malaise has passed," said PC Deputy Chair Alex Robson in a media release.
"While this increase is good news, Australia's workforce is barely more productive now than it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will need sustained productivity growth to move the needle."
Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers in August convened a three-day economic reform roundtable, bringing business leaders, trade unions and economists together with the government to discuss measures to stimulate productivity growth.
In the lead-up to the summit, the PC released a report recommending a tax rate cut to 20 percent for all businesses with annual revenue below 1 billion Australian dollars (approximately 661.4 million U.S. dollars) to boost productivity.
The corporate tax rate is currently set at 25 percent for businesses with revenue below 50 million Australian dollars (33 million U.S. dollars) and at 30 percent for those with annual revenue exceeding 50 million Australian dollars.
Robson said on Thursday that the change would give 99 percent of affected companies stronger incentives to invest.
Chalmers said following the roundtable that the government had secured broad support to work on major areas of tax reform, including finding an affordable and responsible way to encourage business investment. ■