PARIS: Leading world economies grew for the sixth quarter in a row in the three months to September, but expansion slowed down sharply from the second quarter, an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) indicator showed Monday. But OECD economies showed growth of 3.1 percent from the level in the third quarter of last year. This figure of expansion over 12 months was the same as in the second quarter. In the third quarter of this year, output by the 33 countries in the OECD grew by 0.6 percent in after growth of 0.9 percent in the second quarter. Growth rates accelerated in Japan (to 0.9 percent) and, marginally, in the United States (0.5 percent), compared to the previous quarter. The economies of the 16-nation eurozone and of the 27-member European Union each grew by 0.4 percent, down from 1.0 percent in the second quarter. “At 0.7 percent, growth in Germany remained relatively robust but this was still sharply down on the record 2.3 percent growth recorded in the previous quarter,” the OECD said. Growth of output also slowed in France to 0.4 percent.
