Recession and recovery in the OECD

During the last year the global economyhas experienced its most severe recessionsince the Great Depression. This articlecompares the UK experience with thatof OECD member countries – a group ofthe major industrialised economies. Whileimportant economies such as Japan andGermany saw a larger fall in output, thedepth of the UK recession was larger thanthe OECD average. Recent data shows theglobal economy beginning to emerge fromrecession, but the projections are for aweak and fragile recovery as households,businesses and governments continue topay off debts and rebuild their balancesheets. In fact, the major economies couldbe susceptible to a further downturnresulting in a double-dip recession. Thesecond part of this article looks at thefactors underlying recent growth forecastsmade by the OECD and the IMF.