Word: oecd
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...economy may be chugging along nicely, but much of the rest of the world is close to a new recession. That was the sobering message of a report on 1977 and forecast for 1978 published last week in Paris by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD's words carry weight because its 24 member countries make up just about the whole non-Communist industrial world...
According to the OECD, the biggest trouble spot is Europe, and it is easy to see why. While unemployment has been coming down gradually in the U.S., Europe's jobless rolls have been rising since early 1975, and the idle are now about 5.1% of the work force. Reason: economic growth has taken a nosedive. In Europe's four largest economies, those of West Germany, France, Britain and Italy, growth averaged only 2% last year, exactly half the figure for 1976. The slowdown reduced inflation, but not very much: prices rose an average of 10% for non-Communist...
Unless steps are immediately taken to stimulate economies, warns the OECD, the job picture in 1978 will get even worse. The organization sees growth of perhaps as little as 2.5% for Western Europe. That would mark a slight increase from 1977, but riot enough to prevent a further rise in unemployment, which the OECD says could go as high...
What can be done? The OECD recommends prompt efforts by West Germany and Japan, two "locomotive" economies, to speed up growth. Since Japan is already trying to stimulate its economy, the obvious target of the OECD appeal is West Germany, which has consistently rejected expansionist economic policies. At the same time, West Germany has built up a giant $16.7 billion trade surplus that has left the deutsche mark vulnerable to revaluation on the world's money markets. Indeed, because of the recent slide of the dollar, the increased value of the mark is beginning to crimp the country...
Though inflation for Western Europe as a whole ran at an 11% annual pace for the first half of this year, the OECD expects declining food and commodity prices to reduce the rate to a little over 9% by year's end and perhaps as low as 7½% by mid-1978. Even at that level, the rate would still have a depressing effect on both business and consumer confidence and would continue to cast a cloud over the ability of governments to deal effectively with economic problems-particularly if inflation is accompanied by rising unemployment...