Major OECD nations see marginal growth increase

By:

Vivienne Russell

28 Aug 18

Growth picked up slightly across the world’s wealthiest economies between April and June this year, provisional OECD figures have shown.

Across the entire OECD area, growth was 0.6% in the second quarter, up from 0.5% in the first quarter.

Looking at the ‘major seven’ economies, growth was strongest in the US (up from 0.5% to 1.0%) and Japan where it rebounded to 0.5% from a contraction of 0.2%.

Germany and the UK also saw slight up ticks in growth.

In Germany, growth went from 0.4% to 0.5%, while in the UK it improved from 0.2% to 0.4%.

In France, growth remained stable at 0.2%, while Italy saw growth slow to 0.2% from 0.3%.

Across the European Union and the euro area, growth was stable at 0.4%.

“Year-on-year GDP growth for the OECD area continued to slow marginally, to 2.5% in the second quarter of 2018, compared with 2.6% in the previous quarter,” the OECD said.

“Among the major seven economies, the United States recorded the highest annual growth (2.8%), while Japan recorded the slowest annual growth (1.0%).”