Friday, June 4, 2010

Fourth consecutive quarter of GDP growth in OECD area

KUALA LUMPUR: Gross domestic product (GDP) in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) area rose by 0.7% in the first quarter of 2010, the fourth consecutive quarter of growth for the area.

In a statement published Monday, May 31 on its website, the OECD said strong GDP growth continued in the United States (0.8%) and Japan (1.2%).

GDP growth was more subdued in both the euro area and the European Union (0.2%), it said.

Italy returned to positive GDP growth in the first quarter of this year (0.5%), after the small decline of the previous quarter, while the pace of the recovery eased in both France and the United Kingdom and was unchanged in Germany.

"Relative to a year earlier, GDP in the OECD area returned to positive growth (2.5%) after five consecutive quarters of contraction.

"With the exception of the United Kingdom (where GDP was 0.2% lower than a year earlier), GDP was above the level recorded in the previous year in all other major OECD economies, with a large rebound in the case of Japan (4.2%)," it said.




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