India, China may face downturn: OECD

PARIS: Economic momentum in the world’s leading industrialised countries slowed in August when a key index showed “negligible or negative growth,” the OECD said Monday.

“OECD composite leading indicators ( CLI) for August 2010 reinforce signals of slowing economic expansion already seen” in July, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

The OECD area CLI slipped 0.1 point in August, the fourth month of “negligible or negative growth,” it said. The OECD said its CLI indices for Canada, France, Italy, Britain, Brazil, China and India pointed “strongly to a downturn.”

It added that “stronger signals of a peak are emerging in the United States.” But it also found that economic expansion was continuing in Germany, Japan and Russia. The OECD, which has 33 members, seeks to coordinate economic policy among the world’s top industrialised powers.