The Bank of Canada said the country is “stuck in a vicious circle” of low productivity and suggested lowering the regulatory burden for companies and increasing competition as part of a co-ordinated push to improve the country’s growth prospects.

In a speech on Wednesday, deputy governor Nicolas Vincent made the case that Canada is facing a “systemic problem” when it comes to productivity – which can be understood as output per worker, or how efficiently labour and capital are combined to produce goods.

Canada’s productivity growth has lagged peer countries for the past two decades, leaving Canadians poorer than they would otherwise be and the economy less resilient to shocks, such as a sharp protectionist turn from our largest trading partner. This, he said, is the result of structura

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