Overall economic growth held steady in third quarter, but notable divergences between countries remain, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Wednesday.
The Paris-based OECD announced that provisional estimates show that quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD area grew by 0.2% in the third quarter of 2012, which is the same rate as in the previous quarter. However, that overall growth masks underlying diverging patterns across countries.
In the United States for example, growth accelerated to 0.5%, compared with 0.3% in the second quarter, the OECD said. The London Olympic and Paralympic games boosted growth in the United Kingdom, which accelerated to 1%, compared with a contraction of 0.4% in the previous quarter. Estimates for Canada are not yet available.
Conversely, in Germany, growth slowed to 0.2%, compared with 0.3% in the previous quarter, the OECD reported. GDP also contracted for the fifth consecutive quarter in Italy, although the pace of contraction slowed. The pace of contraction also slowed in the euro area overall. And, GDP contracted by 0.9% in Japan for the quarter, compared with 0.1% growth in the previous quarter.
Compared with the same quarter in 2011, GDP growth was down to 1.1% in the third quarter of 2012 for the OECD area, which is down from 1.6% in the previous quarter.