This suggests an outright slowdown in productivity, though a big revision of the statistics on employment and hours worked in June could change all that.

ECONOMIST: Too triumphalist by half

It also says that a slowdown in the rate of expansion of government funding for the public sector might help improve productivity, especially in health care.

BBC: NEWS | Business | OECD warns on UK budget deficit

America's slowdown has not shaken investors' belief that, over the longer term, America will offer faster productivity growth and hence higher rates of return than Europe.

ECONOMIST: The dollar