OECD area registered a real gross domestic product growth of 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the last quarter of 2009, the Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday.
Changes in inventories contributed 0.45 percentage point to overall growth in the first quarter, becoming the main contributor to the growth for the third consecutive quarter, OECD said.
Private consumption was another propellant with 0.3 percentage point contribution, but decline in gross fixed capital formation and net exports partially offset the boost, both accounting for minus 0.1 percentage point of overall GDP growth.
Among the Major Seven economies, Canada had the strongest GDP growth of 1.5 percent in the first quarter, followed by 1.2 percent growth in Japan and by 0.7 percent in the United States.
However, in Europe, the growth is lagging behind and showed in mixed picture. Net exports drove up GDP both in France and Italy, but depressed investment and negative changes in inventories pulled French down to only 0.1 percent in the first quarter.
Strong stockbuilding overweighed negative impact of net export in Germany and the United Kingdom and buoyed overall GDP respectively by 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent, the OECD report said.
In the end of May, the organization has posted an overall OECD-area GDP growth of 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010. Real GDP reading is the adjusted rate excluding effect of price changes./.