The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Thursday that real gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD-area rose by 0.4% in the first quarter,compared with flat growth in the previous quarter.
The Paris-based group suggests that, overall, private consumption was the main driver to overall GDP growth, accounting for 0.3 percentage points of the 0.4% growth, with net exports and stockbuilding contributing 0.1 percentage points each, and fixed capital formation reducing growth by 0.1 percentage point. The contribution of government consumption was negligible, it says.
However, the size, and drivers, of growth differs notably country by country, the OECD observes. In Canada for example, net exports were the main source of GDP growth, which reached 0.6%, with 0.4 percentage points of that coming from exports.
Whereas private consumption was the main driver in the United States, Japan, and Germany; stockbuilding powered growth in France and Italy; and exports were the main contributor to GDP growth in the UK.