The pace of the economic recovery may have slowed in the third quarter, but GDP finally regained its pre-pandemic level, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says.
Economic growth for the OECD area slowed to 0.9% in the third quarter, from 1.7% in the previous quarter. Yet the weaker gain was enough to push GDP above its pre-pandemic mark for the first time.
The OECD said that, in Q3, GDP was up 0.5% from the end of 2019, “driven by the strong performance of the United States, Korea, Israel and some European countries.”
In the third quarter, the U.S. economy was above its pre-pandemic level by 1.4%, while the rest of the G7 was still below their levels from Q4 2019, the OECD added.
In Canada, GDP grew 0.5% in the third quarter, after falling 0.3% in the second quarter.
The U.S. also saw 0.5% growth in Q3, but that was down from 1.6% in the previous quarter.
Japan was the only G7 country to suffer a contraction in GDP for the third quarter, with output shrinking 0.8%, following an increase of 0.4% in the previous quarter.