“Belgium has created a lot of jobs, but its productivity is apparently reduced,” explained Klass de Vries, The Conference Board’s economist and one of the survey’s authors. The lowering of wage costs now makes the creation of jobs for less qualified workers viable. Given that the productivity of these jobs is relatively poor, government policy has had an impact on the development of the country’s overall productivity.
The National Bank of Belgium (BNB) also points out a distribution-of-technologies problem, as increasing productivity and investment in research and development are found mainly within a small group of big companies especially active in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. The BNB also quotes mobility and infrastructure quality problems.
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