NEWS Observer
• News brief •
Record fall in GDP
O
ECD countries recorded a 2.1% drop in real GDP during the first quarter of 2009-the largest fall in GDP since the OECD began collecting this data in 1960. The quarterly loss followed a 2% slump the previous quarter-that was already a record. US GDP fell 1.6% in both the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, while GDP in Japan sunk a total of 7.8% in the six months to April 2009. The decline was even more dramatic when compared to the same quarter a year ago. By that measure, economic output across the OECD area dropped 4.2% in the year to April 2009. Of the G7 countries, only in France, where GDP fell 1.2%, did the rate of contraction ease in the first quarter. In general, though, GDP in the euro area
Soundbites
was down 2.5%, following a 1.6% fall in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, as a modicum of positive news, OECD composite leading indicators for April 2009 point to a reduced pace of deterioration in most of the OECD economies, with stronger signals of a possible bottoming out in Canada, France, Italy and the UK. The leading indicators for the OECD area increased by 0.5 point in April 2009 compared with March, but stood 8.3 points lower than in April 2008. That was slightly less pronounced than the fall in the year to March. The leading indicators for the US were 10.8 points lower than a year ago, while the indicators for Japan were 11.9 points lower. In the euro area, the difference from a year ago was slightly less dramatic, at 6.3 points lower. For more detail, see www.oecd.org/statistics. n
Change of heart“Is French health system a model for US?” Headline in article by Jim Landers in Dallas News, 18 May 2009.
-green mindsets“Politicians around the world do not appreciate how the supply side of green technology works.” Don Burbar of Avalon Rare Metals, quoted in The Times, 28 May 2009.
-and gender “Men, especially young men, made a mess of things.” Kristjan Kristjansson, spokesman for Iceland’s prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottír, on the financial crisis, in the Washington Post, 10 February 2009.
Economy Merchandise trade flows in the G7 area took an unprecedented drop in the final quarter of 2008, but there was a slowdown in the rate of decline during the first quarter of 2009. In the US, export volume growth dropped 7.8% and imports fell 5.1%, while Japanese exports plunged by 19.1% quarter-on-quarter, twice the rate of the G7.
The unemployment rate edged up in the OECD area to reach 7.8% in April 2009, 0.1 percentage point higher than in March and 2.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier. In the year to April 2009, euro-area unemployment rose by nearly 2 points, while unemployment in the US climbed 3.8 percentage points.
Meanwhile, consumer prices in the OECD area rose by 0.6 % in the year to April 2009, compared with 0.9 % in the year to March. Month-on-month, prices rose by 0.2% in April after 0.3% in March 2009. Consumer prices for energy were down by 13.3% in the year to April 2009, following a fall of 11.9% in March. Consumer prices for food were up by 3.3% in the year to April compared with a 4.5% increase in March. Excluding food and energy, consumer prices rose by 1.9% in the year to April 2009, compared with 1.8% in March 2009.
Consumer prices
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OECD Observer
No 273 June 2009
For more on these and other economic stories, go to www.oecd.org/statistics
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OECD total
www.oecd.org/bookshop Source: OECD
