OECD: Group's average economic growth slows

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which comprises the world''''s most industrialised nations, said Thursday that average growth in the OECD area slowed to 0.5 percent in the last quarter of 2013 compared with 0.7 percent in the previous, three-month period. In a report published here, the industrialised group said that destocking of inventories had contributed to the slowdown in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expansion but private consumption had helped spur on growth by 0.4 percent and this factor was a key element in the advance in several nations, notably the United States. The OECD includes 34 nations from North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia.