G20 GDP growth slowed in the fourth quarter of 2021

Paris, 15 Mar Economic growth in the G20, which had been 1.9% in the third quarter of 2021, slowed down to 1.4% in the last three months against the backdrop of coronavirus outbreaks in several countries. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a statement on Tuesday that this slowdown was largely due to India's behavior, with its activity increasing by 13.7 per cent between July and September and rising to 1.8 per cent between October and December. The rate of progression in both the European Union as a whole (from 2.2 to 0.4 per cent) and in the euro area (from 2.3 per cent to 0.3 per cent) also slowed significantly, as their countries were severely hit since December by a sharp spike in infections of the omicron variant. In the case of Germany, the first economy in the EU, its gross domestic product (GDP) had risen by 1.7 per cent in the third quarter of last year and fell by 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter. He was the only member of the G20 with a negative evolution during that period. Mexico, which had suffered a decline in GDP of 0.7 per cent between July and September, remained stagnant in the fourth. Contrary to the general trend, several G20 States experienced economic acceleration in the last three months of last year. This was the case in the United States, with a growth of 1.7 per cent, after 0.6 per cent between July and September; and also in China, with an increase of 1.6 per cent after 0.7 per cent. At the end of last year, the GDP of the G20 was 4.1% higher than it was at the end of 2019, before the effects of the coronavirus were felt. This growth in GDP in two years of pandemic in the group of the 20 largest world economies is explained first by the pull of China, whose activity was 10.2% higher at the end of 2021. Relatively speaking, the recovery was even more dramatic in Turkey, with an increase of 14.5 per cent in those two years. The United States was one of the developed states that previously surpassed the pre-crisis level and by the end of 2021 it was already 3.2% above. In contrast, the eurozone only exceeded that threshold in the last quarter of 2021 and stood 0.2 per cent higher at the end of the year. CHIEF ac/mgr/ah