Sluggish growth in developed world in 2011 December quarter

LONDON: Economic growth in most of the developed world witnessed a deceleration in the last three months of 2011, amid continuing European debt turmoil.

Latest figures from Paris-based think tank OECD showed that economic growth in the member countries slumped to just 0.1 per cent in December quarter of 2011 from 0.6 per cent in the previous three months.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a 34-member grouping of mostly industrialised nations that account for over 60 per cent of global economic output.

Among the member countries, Japan as well as euro area saw a steep slump in economic expansion in the 2011 December quarter. Only the US recorded an improved GDP growth that rose to 0.7 per cent from 0.5 per cent in three months ended September 2011.

Citing provisional estimates for the last three months of 2011, the grouping today said "the OECD total masks diverging patterns however".

"... in Japan GDP declined by 0.6 per cent following the strong technical rebound (1.7 per cent) in the third quarter. In the euro area and the European Union, GDP also fell by 0.3 per cent, for the first time since the second quarter of 2009," OECD said in a statement.

Except for France -- that clocked a GDP growth of 0.2 per cent in 2011 December quarter -- rest of Europe witnessed sluggishness, especially with contraction in German and British economies during the same period.

The European debt crisis, with its epicentre in Greece, is posing uncertainties for the fragile recovery of the global economy.