Economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter, with all of the major components of demand slipping, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reports.
The OECD said on Thursday that real GDP growth in the OECD area slowed to 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to 0.6% growth in the previous quarter. And, all the major components of final demand had a hand in the slowdown, with growth in private consumption, investment and net exports all slowing in the quarter.
Government consumption actually contracted in the fourth quarter, dragging overall GDP growth down by 0.1 percentage point. And, inventories contributed 0.0, but this represented an increase from a negative 0.2 percentage point contribution in the third quarter.
The report indicates that the pattern of a broad-based slowdown in demand components in the fourth quarter differed at the national level, reflecting differences in economic growth rates.
For example, it notes that GDP growth in the U.S. accelerated in the fourth quarter to 0.7%, mainly due to increased stockbuilding and private consumption, which contributed 0.5 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, to overall GDP growth.
Private consumption was also the main driver for quarterly GDP growth in Canada. However, due to a substantial fall of net exports, the overall growth fell to 0.4%, from 1.0% in the previous quarter.
In Japan, the economy fell, after a technical rebound in the previous quarter. Britain saw higher contributions from private consumption, government consumption and net exports, but this was more than offset by a significant fall in fixed capital formation, the OECD says.
Meanwhile, in France, it reports that a positive change in the contribution of net exports was largely offset by significant destocking, and in Germany, a contraction in private consumption and net exports dragged down overall economic growth to minus 0.2%.