The world economy [December 1990]

As this commentary reveals, economic growth continued to decrease for most major industrialised countries in the second quarter of 1990. GDP growth in the G7 countries in the year to June actually accelerated fractionally to 2.8% (from 2.6% in the year to March), but this was almost totally due to the very rapid growth of the Japanese economy; year on- year growth in Japan stood at 7.5% in June. Most other G7 countries saw growth slow quite sharply in the second quarter. This was especially the case in the US, where annual growth slowed to 1.6%, barely half the level achieved in 1989. Growth rates for the remaining G7 countries (excluding Italy) were as follows: Canada 1.4; France 2.1%; Germany 3.4%; UK 2.6%. Industrial production in the major industrialised countries showed a fairly sharp rise in the second quarter of 1990, increasing at an annual rate of 2.2% for both the G7 and the OECD as a whole.