Nevertheless, some observers already think that this could be the new normal. They are concerned that central banks are coming up against the lower bound with their policy rates more and more frequently and are having to turn to non-standard instruments.
In a similar vein, the pick-up in productivity growth over recent years means that the cost of obtaining the labour required to produce a unit of output (the unit labour cost) has not changed for three years. In summary, the economy is currently operating somewhat below its productive capacity.