OECD Cuts 2004 U.S. Growth Forecast

By Agence France-Presse Growth of the U.S. economy this year is likely to be 4.3%, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently forecasted, lowering an earlier forecast of 4.7%. But the Japanese economy was set to grow by 4.4% instead of 3.0% forecast earlier and the eurozone by 2.0% instead of 1.6%. The OECD also revised upwards its forecast for German growth to 1.7% from 1.1% and for growth in France to 2.7% from 2.0%. OECD chief economist Jean-Philippe Cotis said that leading industrialized countries overall were set for "relatively strong" growth in the second half of this year. Growth in OECD economies had slowed in the second quarter, he said. But the Group of Six (G6) countries, comprising the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Britain, should achieve quite substantial growth of 3.5% at an annual rate in the second half of the year, he said. The rise of the price of oil had had only a "modest" effect so far on the way people anticipated inflation and this was a good sign for the way interest rates would evolve, he added. Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004