GDP growth in the OECD area is beginning to gradually strengthen, years after the start of the global financial crisis. Nevertheless, the pace has varied across countries and a sustainable recovery does not appear to have yet been established, with several OECD countries facing the challenge of slower trend growth. A good understanding of the role and the drivers of productivity growth is thus crucial to strengthening the recovery and improving growth and living standards in the longer term. The OECD Compendium of Productivity Indicators provides the ingredients for this by examining both longer term trends of productivity and how the crisis has affected patterns of productivity growth and its components across countries.