OECD GDP rises 0.5% in Q2

The real gross domestic product (GDP) in the area of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) increased by 0.5 percent in the second quarter of 2013, up from 0.3 percent in the previous quarter, said the organization on Thursday. The Paris-based organization attributed the increase to an acceleration of growth in most Major Seven economies (the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, France, Italy and Japan). According to OECD's newly released provisional data, in the April-to-June period, the GDP growth accelerated to 0.6 percent and 0.4 percent respectively in Britain and the United States after a 0.3-percent rise in the previous quarter. In Germany, GDP increased by 0.7 percent compared with the flat growth rate registered in the previous quarter. After entering into shallow recession in the first quarter of 2013 with a contraction of 0.2 percent, France's GDP rebounded to a growth of 0.5 percent in the second quarter, exactly the same rate as that published by France's national statistics bureau last week. In Japan, quarter-on-quarter GDP growth slowed from 0.9 percent to 0.6 percent. In Italy, it declined for the eighth consecutive quarter, but the pace of contraction slowed to 0.2 percent, compared with 0.6 percent in the first three months of 2013. At the same time, the GDP growth rebounded in the European Union from minus 0.1 to 0.3 percent, and in the eurozone form minus 0.3 to 0.3 percent, which is "the first GDP expansion since the third quarter of 2011," said the OECD in its new data survey. "Compared with the second quarter of 2012, GDP in the OECD area expanded by 0.9 percent, up from 0.6 percent in the first quarter, with Britain and the United States recording the highest growth rate of 1.4 percent and Italy the largest contraction of minus 2 percent," the OECD said.