Paris: As data was released Thursday showed that the German economy was in a technical recession, a leading international economic organisation, the OECD, has now forecast that industrialized countries are facing a major slowdown.

With Germany, a pillar of the European economy, slipping into a technical recession, further bad news is awaited as France and Italy next release data tomorrow.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast Thursday that gross domestic product for its 30 member countries would decline 0.3 per cent in 2009 from 2008, before recovering slightly to grow by 1.5 per cent in 2010.

According to an OECD economist, the outlook, however, was dependant largely on the depth and duration of the ongoing financial crisis and the extent to which the housing problem would be resolved. 

The gloomy news emerges even as leaders of the Group of 20 nations begin to gather in Washington for a summit meeting, commencing Saturday. The summit is intended to develop a coordinated response to what is now being accepted as a global economic crisis.

In an executive summary of its outlook, the OECD also predicts that the average unemployment rate in its member countries, estimated at 5.9 per cent this year, would climb a full percentage point to 6.9 per cent next year, and eventually reach 7.2 per cent in 2010.

The OECD outlook also forecasts that Japan's economy will contract next year, as contracting global and domestic economies bring the nation to the edge of a recession for the first time since 2001.

The outlook says that Japan's economy, the world's second-largest, will contract 0.1 per cent in 2009 before growing 0.6 per cent the following year. Gross domestic product will be up 0.5 per cent for the year, well below the 1.7 per cent the OECD's  June estimate.

Japanese data is due for release on 17 November.

The OECD will release its full economic outlook on 25 November.