Mumbai:
The 13-nation European Union is on course to be the
lead economy supporting global growth and fill the gap
left by the United States, the OECD has said, lowering
its US forecasts and raising its outlook for Europe.
The
Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development sees economic growth in the US, beset by housing
and investment woes, is slipping in the third quarter.
It
expects the US economy to expand 2.5 per cent in the second
quarter and 2.3 per cent in the third, less than the 2.7
per cent and the 2.8 per cent it had expected in November.
Led
by Germany, the pace of growth in 13 nations sharing the
euro will reach 2.6 per cent in the second quarter and
2.5 per cent in the third, compared with the 2.2 per cent
and 2.3 per cent previously forecast.
"We
are still counting on a scenario of re-balancing,"
OECD chief economist Jean-Philippe Cotis wrote in a preface
to the OECD''s twice-yearly outlook.
"Our
central forecast is very favourable, with a soft landing
in the US and a strong and sustained rebound in Europe,
a solid trajectory in Japan and a ''bubbly'' conjecture
in China and India."
For
the year as a whole, OECD sees the euro-zone economy growing
2.7 per cent, the US at 2.1 per cent, and Japan at 2.4
per cent. In 2008, it predicted, the US will recover,
outpacing Europe at 2.5 per cent compared with 2.3 per
cent.
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