The world economy appears to be suffering a slowdown in growth that will stretch through the rest of the year and 2016, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development.
Heightening concerns that a period of “secular stagnation” is about to dampen the prospects for global growth, the Paris-based thinktank said China’s economy was flagging and recent stock market turmoil had exposed the fragility of many emerging market economies.
But the steady progress made by some of the largest developed economies, including Britain, the US and Germany was maintaining the global recovery.
Nevertheless, the OECD described the outlook for the next couple of years as one characterised by “puzzles and uncertainties” as the growth prospects for Japan and the uneven pace of growth among eurozone countries revealed a mixed and confusing picture.
It said: “The US recovery remains solid, but there are puzzles around developments in other major economies. Growth in the euro area is improving, but not as fast as might be expected.
“Erratic data in Japan raise questions about the robustness of the recovery there. And growth dynamics in China are difficult to assess, with conflicting signals coming from different indicators.”
