OECD sees Q3 growth at 0.6% on strong growth in Japan

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD area rose by 0.6 rowth of 1.5 percent in Japan, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Thursday. The key reason for the increase in the OECD growth rate, as compared to the second quarter when the growth rate was just 0.3 percent, was due to "a technical rebound after the earthquake disaster" in Japan, the advanced countries' advisory agency said in a quarterly report. Before the third quarter growth in Japan, the earthquake-hit state has recorded three consecutive quarters of contraction since the last quarter of 2010 when its national output declined 0.7 percent. In the July-September period, growth in the euro area and the European Union remained feeble at 0.2 percent, despite the higher growth in Germany, Britain and France, which saw their growth at 0.5 percent, 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent in order compared to a quarter earlier. Besides the three EU economic locomotives, GDP growth in the United States also picked up slightly at 0.6 percent from 0.3 percent in the previous quarter. Year-on-year, GDP increased by 1.8 percent in the third quarter of 2011 in the OECD area, the same as in the previous quarter. Among the seven biggest advanced economies, Germany recorded the highest year-on-year growth rate at 2.6 percent and Japan the lowest at minus 0.2 percent. The euro zone GDP growth decelerated to 1.4 percent from 1.6 percent in the second quarter on yearly basis as Germany, Italy and Britain also saw their third quarter growth slowed down and France's remained stable.