These encouraging signs must be weighted against the fact that data based on productivity per hours worked show a less spectacular improvement in 2006. Since only yearly data on hours are available for the euro area, we will need time to understand whether changes in working time distort the interpretation of quarterly data on productivity per employed person.
The problem at this point in time is to determine whether the recent improvements in productivity growth do, or do not, represent the beginning of an inversion of the declining trend observed of the last decade.