OECD: Euro zone growth gaining pace, others stable

[March 09, 2015] PARIS, March 9 (Reuters) - The euro zone is increasingly contributing to an improvement in global economic growth prospects, according to a forward-looking indicator the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published on Monday.

The OECD said its leading indicator, designed to detect changes in economic prospects, showed "positive change in growth momentum in the euro area and stable growth momentum in most other major economies and the OECD area as a whole."

The indicator, expressed as an index where 100 denotes the long-term average, rose to 100.7 for the euro zone as a whole from 100.6 in the preceding month's report, and rose also for the OECD group of mostly wealthy economies, to 100.4 from 100.3.

The U.S. reading was stable at 100.2 and for Japan it stayed at 99.8. In large non-OECD economies, the index rose to 99.1 in China from 99.0. It edged higher too in Brazil and India but fell in Russia to 99.3 from 99.5.

Within the euro zone, the reading for Germany rose to 99.7 from 99.6 while in France it rose to 100.6 from 100.5. It nudged higher too in Italy, to 101.2 from 101.0.

(Reporting by Brian Love; Editing by Mark John/Ruth Pitchford)

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