The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) today estimated that gross domestic product in the OECD area rose by 0.5 per cent in the second quarter.
That was up from 0.3 per cent growth in the first quarter. The OECD gave the figure two weeks after predicting an uneven pattern of economic recovery among its 30 member countries, with the euro zone a weak spot and the United States and Japan powering ahead.
In its first second-quarter estimates report, the OECD said euro zone growth turned negative in the second quarter, with GDP down 0.1 per cent after a flat first quarter, in line with data from Eurostat last week.
At the other end of the spectrum, the OECD pegged US growth at a healthy 0.8 per cent for the second quarter, building on growth of 0.4 per cent recorded in the first quarter.
Japanese GDP surged by 1 per cent in the April-June period, it said, following robust first-quarter growth of 0.6 per cent and giving Japan the strongest annual growth rate in the OECD.
Four Group of Seven countries - Canada, France, Germany and Italy - saw their economic output decline in the first quarter, the OECD said, leaving the United States as by far the biggest contributor to OECD area growth in the last 12 months.
Between the second quarter of 2002 and the second quarter of 2003, the United States contributed 0.9 percentage points of the 1.9 per cent growth registered across the OECD. Japan contributed 0.4 percentage points and the euro zone 0.1 points.
Earlier this month, the OECD halved its 2003 growth forecast for the euro zone to 0.5 per cent from 1 per cent previously.