PARIS -- Growth in advanced economies picked up speed in the second quarter, rising to 0.5% from 0.3% at the beginning of the year with a sharp recovery in the eurozone, the OECD said on Thursday.
The increase was driven by the United States, Germany and Britain, and a big bounce by France, the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on the basis of provisional data. But the Japanese economy slipped back.
The British economy showed growth of 0.6% and the United States 0.4%. Both had shown growth of 0.3%in the first quarter.
Germany's GDP, grew by 0.7% from a flat growth rate.
The OECD said that the eurozone had switched into growth of 0.3% from contraction of 0.3% in the first quarter.
Noting for the eurozone "the first GDP expansion since the third quarter of 2011," the OECD also reported that trailing eurozone-member France rallied to growth of 0.5% from contraction of 0.2%.
Growth in Japan, however, slowed in the period, to 0.6% from 0.9%, and Italy saw its economy shrink for the eighth month running, by 0.2% from a contraction of 0.6% in the first quarter.
Year-on-year, the OECD said output among its members had grown by 0.9%.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
