Is corporate profitability really high in the euro zone?

In the euro zone, non-financial corporations’ gross profits (or cash flows before dividend payments) in relation to GDP have risen markedly since 2 009. But this analysis can be corrected by looking at: Either the return on capital employed, which takes into account the fact that capital intensity (the ratio of the stock of capital to GDP) has risen; Or net profits after depreciation (consumption of fixed capital), which is one way to account for the capital accumulated. We then see that corporate profitability in the euro zone, adjusted for either capital intensity or depreciation, is in reality lower today than before the 2008 crisis .