Overall gross domestic product (GDP) growth accelerated a little bit in the first quarter, but continued to diverge across countries, according to the latest data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The Paris-based OECD said Friday that provisional estimates show that quarterly GDP in the OECD area grew by 0.4% in the first quarter, up from 0.3% in the previous quarter.
However, it also notes that the overall rate continues to mask diverging growth patterns among countries. Positive growth rates were recorded in Japan (1.0%), Germany (0.5%) and the United States (0.5%). But, activity remained weak in the euro area, with GDP falling by 0.8% in Italy, down by 0.3% in the United Kingdom, and flat in France. For Italy and the UK, this represented their third, and second, consecutive quarterly declines, respectively. Data for Canada was not available.
On a year over year basis, growth also appears to be accelerating. Compared with the same quarter of 2011, GDP growth in the first quarter of this year expanded by 1.6% in the overall OECD area, up from 1.4% in the previous quarter. Among the major seven economies, Japan recorded the highest growth rate (2.6%), followed by the U.S. (2.1%), whereas Italy recorded the lowest growth rate (-1.3%).