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FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Vicky Redwood, Chief UK Economist at Capital Economics notes that the latest productivity figures confirmed that output per worker managed to rise a bit in the third quarter.

She writes, "Although employment showed a relatively big rise in the quarter, the 0.9% expansion in GDP was even stronger. However, this followed three previous quarters of falls in productivity, so the annual growth rate was a weak -1.7%. What's more, with average hours worked rising in the quarter, output per hour fell by 0.2% q/q in Q3, the fifth quarterly fall in a row."

She continues to add that even on an output per worker basis, productivity is still 4% below its pre crisis peak and about 12% below where it would have been had the pre-recession trend continued. She remains sceptical that this weakness means that productivity growth has been permanently damaged and still feels that a significant rebound is likely at some point. However, in the near-term, she thinks that this is more likely to come about through renewed job-cutting than a strong pick up in output growth.

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