Leading economies are showing fragile signs that the economic crisis driving recession in many countries may be easing or have reached a low point, the OECD said on Monday on the basis of April data. But the damaging effects of the global crisis are still worsening in many emerging economies, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said.
The OECD said that although it was too soon to say if data for leading industrialised countries marked "a temporary or a more durable turning point," its index of leading indicators showed that the dire winds of contraction were easing.
The latest monthly figures, for April, "point to a reduced pace of deterioration in most of the OECD economies with stronger signals of a possible trough in Canada, France, Italy and the United Kingdon," the OECD said. Compared with data for the previous month "positive signals are also emerging in Germany, Japan and the United States."
But the OECD warned that countries outside the 30-member OECD group "still face deteriorating conditions, with the exception of China and India, where tentative signs of a trough have also emerged."