It will also be very important to promote fair competition and revitalize R&D investment, through the restraint of rent seeking and the easing of regulations, and to discover thereby new technologies and new engines of growth. The second task is to push ahead with economic rebalancing. We need to move from export-led growth to growth characterized by a balance between exports and domestic demand.
The employment cost index increased by an annual rate of 6.3 percent over the second quarter—its highest level in decades. A more-timely data source, average hourly earnings, decelerated slightly to a 4.4 percent annual rate over the third quarter, down from 4.6 percent annual growth in the second quarter.