After suffering the steepest downturn in post-war history, growth turned positive again in the spring of 2009. The current recovery is underpinned by fiscal stimulus, expansionary monetary conditions, an upswing in world trade, an improvement in financial conditions and restocking activities of companies. Even though the economy is recovering, the precrisis level of production is projected to be reached only by 2013. There will thus be substantial slack in the economy over the medium-term, notwithstanding the fact that the crisis is likely to have led also to a temporary reduction in the growth rate of potential output.