OECD employment and labour force participation (LFP) rates remained broadly stable at 70.3% and 74% in the third quarter of 2024, marking the highest levels recorded since the start of the series in 2005 and 2008 respectively. Both indicators were at or near their record highs in 13 of the 38 OECD countries, including France, Germany, Japan, and Türkiye. The employment rate exceeded the OECD average of 70.3% in about two-thirds of OECD countries in Q3 2024, with the notable exceptions of Italy and France among G7 countries. Türkiye remained ...

European Union companies could become more competitive against their U.S. and Chinese rivals if they paid less for energy — a goal governments could achieve by cooperating to invest and to integrate the EU’s fragmented energy market, the IMF said. Boosting Europe’s economic competitiveness is a priority for the 27-nation bloc as it struggles in the race for new, climate-friendly technologies against China and the United States. The challenge has become much tougher after the collapse of cheap pipeline gas imports from Russia in the aftermath of Moscow’s invasion of ...

The International Monetary Fund will forecast steady global growth and continuing disinflation when it releases an updated World Economic Outlook on Jan. 17, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters on Friday. Georgieva said the U.S. economy was doing “quite a bit better” than expected, although there was high uncertainty around the trade policies of the administration of President-elect Donald Trump that was adding to headwinds facing the global economy and driving long-term interest rates higher. With inflation moving closer to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s target, and data showing a ...

Literacy and numeracy skills among adults have largely declined or stagnated over the past decade in most OECD countries, according to the second OECD Survey of Adult Skills. Declines have been even larger and more widespread among low-educated adults. The Survey measured the skills of around 160 000 16-65 year-olds across 31 countries*. Twenty-seven of these countries took part in the first Survey in 2013. It also looked at how literacy, numeracy and problem solving is used at work. It aims to provide evidence of how developing and using skills improves ...

Year-on-year inflation in the OECD, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), was stable at 4.5% in November 2024 compared with October (Figures 1 and 2). At country level the picture was more mixed, with inflation rising in 14 of 38 OECD countries including notable increases of 1.7 percentage points (p.p.) in Slovenia and 1.0 p.p. in Lithuania. Meanwhile, headline inflation declined in 11 OECD countries and was stable or broadly stable in 13. Headline inflation remained highest in Türkiye at 47.1% in November, despite a decline of 1.5 ...

A plan discussed by wealthy nations to throttle tens of billions of dollars in public support for oil and gas projects has broken down without agreement, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. The European Union, UK, the United States and other countries had sought the deal to limit export-credit agency finance for global fossil-fuel projects under the umbrella of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the report said. “Negotiations are still ongoing,” an OECD spokesperson said to Reuters in response to the report. While improving transparency in export financing ...

Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday the country had received $1.1 billion from the International Monetary Fund, which would be used for key budget expenditure. Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said Ukraine had already received $5.4 billion from the IMF so far this year. Kyiv relies heavily on foreign financial aid to cover social expenditure and to support the economy as Ukraine’s military continues to battle Russian forces, almost three years since Moscow launched full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. Ukraine allocates its own revenues to security ...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published, on behalf of the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics (IAG) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the Second Progress Report on the implementation of the Third Phase of the G20 Data Gaps Initiative (DGI-3). The report provides an update on the work undertaken since September 2023 to address critical data gaps that impede the policymakers’ ability to develop economic and financial policy to address climate change, financial innovation, and inclusive growth. The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBGs) welcomed the ...

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the G20 area rose by 0.7% in the third quarter of 2024, slightly up from the 0.6% growth rate recorded in the previous quarter1 according to provisional estimates. Quarterly G20 GDP growth rates have remained broadly stable since the second quarter of 2023. In Q3 2024, GDP growth remained stable for the G20 as a whole, but the picture was mixed across countries. Indonesia, India, and the United States recorded stable growth (1.2%, 1.1% and 0.7% respectively), whereas growth accelerated significantly in Mexico (from 0.4% ...

The OECD unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9% in October 2024, having been at or just below 5.0% since March 2022 (Figure 1 and Table 1). Compared with September, October unemployment rates were unchanged in 19 OECD countries, declined in 7 and rose in 5. Five OECD countries recorded an unemployment rate below 3.0%; only Colombia and Spain registered a double-digit rate despite a trend decline in Spain. The number of unemployed persons in the OECD area increased slightly to a total of 34.1 million. In the European Union and ...

Literacy and numeracy skills among adults have largely declined or stagnated over the past decade in most OECD countries, according to the second OECD Survey of Adult Skills. Declines have been even larger and more widespread among low-educated adults. The Survey measured the skills of around 160 000 16-65 year-olds across 31 countries*. Twenty-seven of these countries took part in the first Survey in 2013. It also looked at how literacy, numeracy and problem solving is used at work. It aims to provide evidence of how developing and using skills improves ...

Greece’s economy held up well during recent crises and has outpaced growth in the euro area since the global energy crisis. Further policy action is now needed to ensure continuing strong growth and fiscal sustainability, notably to keep public debt on a firmly declining path, according to a new OECD report. The latest OECD Economic Survey of Greece projects GDP growth to rise from 2.3% in 2024 and 2.2% in 2025 to 2.5% in 2026. The government plans primary fiscal surpluses of 2.5% of GDP in 2025 and 2.4% in ...

Year-on-year inflation in the OECD as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was broadly stable in October 2024, at 4.5% as compared to 4.4% in September after four consecutive months of decline. The number of OECD countries where inflation rose year-on-year (16) was slightly greater than the number of countries where it declined (14). Cumulative headline inflation from December 2019 reached 30.2% in the OECD, with individual country rates ranging from less than 10% in Switzerland, Japan, and Costa Rica to more than 40% in Estonia, Poland, and Hungary, ...

The global economy is projected to remain resilient despite significant challenges, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook. The Outlook projects global GDP growth of 3.3% in 2025, up from 3.2% in 2024, and 3.3% in 2026. Inflation in the OECD is expected to ease further, from 5.4% in 2024 to 3.8% in 2025 and 3.0% in 2026, supported by the still restrictive stance of monetary policy in most countries. Headline inflation has already returned to central bank targets in nearly half of the advanced economies and close to 60% ...

The OECD has trimmed its forecast for German economic growth next year due to political uncertainty and tight fiscal policy, while still anticipating stagnation this year, it said on Wednesday. The world’s third-largest economy is expected to grow by 0.7% in 2025, down from a previously forecast 1.1%. “In 2025, Germany will bring up the rear among OECD countries,” Isabell Koske, from the OECD, told Reuters. The collapse of Germany’s ruling coalition last month is set to bring more economic pain in the months ahead and Trump victory in the ...