Wednesday, January 18 2006 13:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: China leads Asian productivity with an average rate of 8.7 per cent since 2000, more than double than that of India at 4.1 per cent, a report by a global business research firm has said.

The report by 'Conference Board', which provides comprehensive worldwide measures of labour productivity, said India's rate stood at 4.4 per cent in 2004.

But it clarified that the figures for India should be seen in the perspective of faster employment growth at about 2 per cent during recent years, which was double the growth of labour input in China.

"China experienced a similar phase of moderate productivity growth during the late 1980s and early 1990s," the report said.

Referring to current Chinese productivity growth, it said, "This significant acceleration in productivity growth is striking as average productivity growth in China was just 3.1 per cent from 1995-2000."

This suggests that the dramatic changes in reform policies and the increase in openness prior to China's ascension to the World Trade Organisation showed their major impact during the most recent years, it added.

The report said that the times of high US labour productivity growth rates were over, at least for now, though adding it was still healthy compared to many other developed nations, standing at 1.8 per cent in 2005.

Labour productivity measures the amount of output obtained for each hour of work and determines a nation's living standards measured by per capita income.