The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has announced that gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the OECD area in the second quarter of this year picked up slightly to 0.6 percent from 0.5 percent recorded in the previous quarter, while the year-on-year GDP growth figure in the second quarter fell to 2.5 percent from 2.6 percent recorded in the previous quarter.
Compared with the same period of 2017, in the second quarter of this year, the largest increase in GDP growth in the OECD area was recorded in the USA at 2.8 percent, while Japan recorded the lowest annual growth rate at one percent.
Compared with the previous quarter, in the second quarter the UK (pre-Brexit) saw its GDP growth rate increase to 0.4 percent, while the United States saw its GDP growth rate increase to 1.0 percent. In Japan and Germany, GDP growth increased to 0.5 percent compared to the previous quarter. Germany’s GDP growth rose to 0.5 percent in the second quarter, while Italy’s GDP growth decreased to 0.2 percent, from the previous quarter. In France, GDP growth was stable at 0.2 percent compared to the previous quarter. In the second quarter of this year, GDP growth was stable at 0.4% in both the European Union and the euro area, both compared to the previous quarter.