Real gross domestic product growth slowed in the second quarter due to sluggish demand, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports.
The Paris-based organization said Thursday that GDP growth in the OECD area slowed to 0.2% in the second quarter, compared with 0.4% in the first quarter. A slowing in private consumption was the main cause of the overall slowdown, it says, as it contributed just 0.1 percentage point to GDP growth, compared with 0.3 percentage points in the previous quarter.
The contributions of government consumption and gross fixed capital formation were negligible in the second quarter, compared with 0.1 percentage point in the first quarter, the OECD adds. However, these effects were partially offset by stockbuilding and net exports, which each contributed 0.1 percentage point to overall GDP growth in the quarter.
In Canada, the increased contribution of domestic demand was counterbalanced by a deterioration in net exports, leaving overall GDP growth stable at 0.5%, the OECD says.
Whereas, for the United States, the contribution of net exports improved slightly, but private and government consumption weakened.
Japan saw a significant fall in the contribution from private consumption (it added just 0.1 percentage point to growth, compared with 0.7 in the previous quarter), which dragged its GDP growth to 0.2% down from 1.3% in the previous quarter.