The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has announced that gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD area grew by 0.6 percent in the third quarter of 2012 compared with 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter growth in the second quarter, according to preliminary estimates.
Compared with the same quarter of 2011, GDP growth slowed to 2.6 percent in the third quarter of 2012 in the OECD area. In the previous quarter, the figure was 2.9 percent. In the third quarter this year, China recorded the highest growth rate with 7.4 percent, while Italy saw the largest contraction with 2.4 percent, both year on year.
Compared to the previous quarter, growth accelerated in the third quarter of 2012 in the United Kingdom with a rise of one percent, compared to the 0.4 percent decrease recorded in the previous quarter. Growth also accelerated in the United States, Brazil, France, China and the European Union on quarter-on-quarter basis. It contracted sharply in Japan with a decrease of 0.9 percent compared with the stable level recorded in the second quarter. GDP growth rates were substantially lower in South Africa and in Turkey, quarter on quarter. In Italy, the pace of GDP contraction slowed for the second consecutive quarter.