OECD: US, Japanese economies firming, others still limited

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which comprises the world's 34 most industrialised nations, said Monday that out of all its member countries only the U.S. and Japan were showing signs of firmer economic growth, while the other members were still experiencing "limited momentum". In its regular monthly report on "Composite Leading Indicators (CLI)" in its member nations, the OECD said that "the United States and Japan are the only countries where the CLIs point to economic growth firming". The OECD last month forecast that U.S. growth would be the strongest in the group, expanding over 2.5 percent in 2014. Meanwhile, European economies, for the most part, are having difficulty recovering from the financial and structural crises, which has particularly affected the Euro Zone nations. "In other major economies (other than the U.S. and Japan), the CLIs point to limited growth momentum," the report said. But performance as indicated by the anticipatory data, will be mixed in Europe, with Germany "returning to trend", while Italy will show a positive change in pace. France is not seen as moving out of its stagnating position. Britain and Canada will grow at close to trend, the OECD said. Outside of the developed nations' group, the Paris-based organisation said that Brazil and China will be "close to trend rates" for growth, but Russia is expected to lose momentum and India to be below growth trends.