OECD: United States and Japan Leading Developed Economy Recovery

The major developed economies are gradually gaining momentum led by faster growth in Japan and the United States, the OECD said on Monday.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said its latest monthly leading indicator as a whole rose to 100.6 in April from 100.5 in March.

The slight improvement brought the measure, which covers 33 OECD members and is designed to indicate turning points in economic activity, further above the long-term average of 100.

In its twice-yearly Economic Outlook last month, the OECD forecast that the recession-hit euro zone would fall further behind a generally improving United States and a rebounding Japan this year, cutting its global growth estimates.

The monthly leading indicator underlined this, suggesting that the United States and Japan were the only countries among major economies where growth is firming.

The indicator for the United States was unchanged at 101.0 while Japan, whose central bank recently released a wave of massive monetary stimulus on the economy, saw its reading improve to 101.1 from 100.9.

via Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza