The OECD area[1] employment rate – the share of the working-age population with jobs – rose by 1.9 percentage points in the third quarter of 2020, to 66.7%, following a fall of 4.4 percentage points in the second quarter due to COVID 19 containment measures. The latest rate thus remains 2.5 percentage points below the rate observed in the first quarter of 2020. Some care is needed in interpreting the latest developments, as a large part of the increase in the third quarter reflects the return to work of furloughed ...

The International Monetary Fund is urging countries to continue strong fiscal and monetary efforts to support their economies given what it sees as a ‘great deal of uncertainty’ about the risks posed by a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and new variants. “The global economy is at a critical juncture,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters at an online briefing. “There remains a great deal of uncertainty.” Rice said the IMF would release an updated global economic forecast on Jan. 26 that would reflect recent developments, including development and distribution of ...

The OECD area unemployment rate continued to decline in November 2020, to 6.9%, from 7.1% in October, but remained 1.7 percentage points above the level observed in February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the labour market. It continued to decline faster among women (to 7.0% in November, from 7.2% in October) than among men (to 6.8%, from 6.9%). Similar declines were observed for the youth (aged 15 to 24) (to 14.3%, from 14.4% in October) and for people aged 25 and above(to 6.0%, from 6.1%). 45.5 million persons were ...

China’s economy is projected to expand by 7.9 percent in 2021 following 1.9-percent growth in 2020, as economic activity continues to normalize and domestic COVID-19 outbreaks remain under control, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Friday. “The Chinese economy continues its fast recovery from the pandemic, helped by a strong containment effort and swift policy actions to mitigate the impact of the crisis,” the executive board of the IMF said in a statement after concluding the annual Article IV review of the Chinese economy. “Policymakers have provided financial relief and ...

More lockdowns and social distancing – even with a global vaccine rollout in place. That’s the sobering forecast for 2021 from Laurence Boone, the chief economist of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development. “We probably have another six to nine or twelve months of this ahead of us,” she told the BBC’s Talking Business Asia programme. “I’m not saying it’s easy, I’m saying we’ve seen that it worked in 2020”. “We must keep going both with the non-pharmaceutical measures, the government support and deploy the vaccine, as long and ...

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund has agreed to raise the medium-term target for the fund’s precautionary reserves given a sharp increase in financial risks since 2018, the IMF said on Friday. The fund’s 24 executive directors increased the target to Special Drawing Rights 25 billion, or around $36 billion, from SDR 20 billion, or $29 billion, after a regular biannual review conducted at the end of October, the IMF said in a statement. SDRs are the IMF’s own unit of currency. The review, delayed by a few ...

Annual inflation in the OECD area was stable at 1.2% in November. Energy prices declined by (minus) 8.1%, a faster pace than in October (minus 7.7%), while food price inflation slowed to 3.3%, compared with 3.6% in October. OECD annual inflation excluding food and energy was also stable at 1.6% in November 2020. Source: OECD

Economic stimulus approved in the United States and Japan at the end of last year will help to power recovery in these economies in the second half of 2021, IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said on Wednesday. Gopinath told Yahoo Finance in a live interview that this may prompt some upgrades of economic forecasts in some parts of the world. But she said recovery in some developing countries could be delayed until 2022 by limited availability of vaccines. Source: Reuters (Reporting by David Lawder)

The International Monetary Fund estimates that synchronized investment in infrastructure by Group of 20 major economies could boost global output by nearly 2% by 2025, a senior IMF official said on Tuesday. Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Sayeh told the Rome Investment Forum the global economy had begun to climb back from the depths of the COVID-19 crisis, but a resurgence in infections was delaying the recovery and setbacks were possible. She said it was vital to bring the health crisis under control through international investment in vaccines, continue fiscal support ...

Sixty-two percent of the International Monetary Fund’s lending in response to the coronavirus pandemic went to 21 countries in Latin America because the region was so hard hit, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Tuesday. Georgieva told a panel hosted by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, that the Fund had plenty of lending firepower left, and would focus on helping countries in the region take the “turn towards a greener and digital and fairer economy.” Source: Reuters (Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Franklin Paul)

On 14 December this year, we are commemorating the 60th anniversary of the signature of the Convention establishing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD succeeded the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), which was created in 1948 to administer American and Canadian aid under the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after the Second World War. Solidarity, ambition and international co-operation inspired the development of the Marshall Plan and the creation of the OECD. Today, perhaps more than at any other time in the last ...

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the G20 area rebounded by 8.1% in the third quarter of 2020 following the unprecedented falls in the first half of the year due to COVID-19 containment measures. However, GDP remained 2.4% below its pre-crisis high of the final quarter of 2019. Among the G20 economies, GDP in India rebounded strongest, by 21.9%, following a fall of 25.2% in the second quarter, the sharpest drop ever recorded. GDP also rebounded with double-digit numbers in the third quarter, after double-digit falls in the second quarter, in ...

OECD Leaders will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the OECD Convention on 14 December 2020, inaugurating a series of events with key stakeholders in observance. While looking back at the OECD’s history – with a focus on the transformations of the last decade – Leaders and other participants will reflect on the global economic, social and environmental situation, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 crisis and recovery, and discuss the opportunities and challenges for multilateralism and the role of the OECD today. The commemoration will be ...

The OECD area unemployment rate continued to decline in October 2020, to 7.1%, from 7.3% in September, but remained about 2.0 percentage points above the level observed in February, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the labour market. The unemployment rate decreased slightly faster among women (down to 7.2% in October, from 7.5% in September) than among men (down to 6.9%, from 7.1%) in OECD countries, narrowing the gap to 0.3 percentage point, from 0.9 percentage point in April. The OECD area unemployment rate for youth (people aged 15 to 24) ...

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Wednesday that she expects an IMF program that freezes payments on IMF debt from the poorest countries to be extended through the end of 2021. Georgieva made the comments during an IMF forum on the COVID-19 crisis in developing countries, where she also said that the best value spending that countries could make in the crisis are investments to accelerate the distribution of coronavirus vaccines. Source: Reuters (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)