Gross domestic product in the countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development fell by a record 2.1% in the first quarter, the OECD said Monday.

The OECD said that the GDP drop was the largest fall since it began keeping records in 1960, outpacing the previous quarter’s 2.0% decline.

In the United States, GDP fell by 1.6% in the first quarter, the same rate as in the previous quarter. Japan’s GDP declined by 4.0%, following a 3.8% decrease in the previous quarter. GDP in the euro area was down 2.5%, following a 1.6% fall in the previous quarter. France was the only country among the big seven that saw its rate of decline ease compared with the prior quarter.

Compared with the same quarter a year earlier, all the big seven recorded a fall in GDP, and a marked deterioration on the previous quarter’s year-on-year figures, the OECD said.

Canada is the only country for which preliminary Q1 data is not yet available, so to calculate the growth rate for the seven big economies, GDP for Canada is estimated using the monthly Canadian series of real GDP by industry at basic prices as the indicator.

IE