GDP Growth – Third quarter of 2020, OECD

but remains below pre-pandemic high

Download the entire news release (PDF 120KB)

19 Nov. 2020 – Following the unprecedented falls in real gross domestic product (GDP) in the first half of the year in the wake of COVID-19 containment measures, GDP in the OECD area rebounded by 9.0% in the third quarter of 2020 but it remains 4.3% below its pre-crisis high.

Among the Major Seven economies, GDP in the third quarter rebounded most strongly in those economies that also saw the sharpest falls in the second quarter by: 18.2% in France, (following a contraction of 13.7%), 16.1% in Italy (following a contraction of 13.0%) and 15.5% in the United Kingdom (following a contraction of 19.8%).

GDP also rebounded in all other major economies: in Canada (by 10%, following a contraction of 11.5% in the previous quarter), Germany (8.2%, minus 9.8%), Japan (5.0%, minus 8.2%) and the United States (7.4%, minus 9.0%).

In the euro area and the European Union, GDP increased by 12.6% and 11.6% respectively, following contractions of 11.8% and 11.4% in the previous quarter.

GDP remained significantly below the levels of a year earlier in the OECD area as whole (minus 4.1%) and in all Major Seven economies, with the United States (minus 2.9%) recording the smallest annual fall and the United Kingdom (minus 9.6%) the largest.

Link to underlying data – Source: Quarterly National Accounts: Quarterly growth rates of real GDP

Gross domestic product, Cumulative growth rate over the last 3 quarters, seasonally adjusted data, Q3 2019

Note: As a consequence of measures put in place by governments to reduce the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), many statistical agencies are facing unprecedented collection, compilation and methodological challenges to develop indicators across a number of domains. To address these challenges, the statistical community is developing guidance, both conceptual and practical, to help ensure the continued delivery of timely and reliable statistics. However, in some cases, there will inevitably be an impact on quality and, as such, the statistics included in this press release may be subject to larger, and more frequent, than normal revisions.

/Public Release. View in full here.