The world economy [March 1991]

Despite some evidence of a decline in September, year-on-year growth in industrial production continued to be healthy in the third quarter of 1990. In the year to September both the G7 countries and the OECD as a whole experienced 2.6% growth in industrial production. As in previous quarters, the German and Japanese economies continued to provide the bulk of the growth, with
increases in industrial production of 6.0% and 7.7% respectively for the year to September (October for Japan). While less spectacular, France (2.4%) and the United States (1.8%) also showed reasonably healthy growth, while the UK went into sharp decline, with annual growth of - 2.3% for the year to September. Growth rates of
industrial production for the remaining G7 countries were Italy, 0.6% and Canada, -4.2%. Analyses of macroeconomic trends, including an analysis of the economic health of the United States, Japan and Germany, is also provided.