World Economies Slowed In May, Even White-Hot Brazil Disappoints: OECD

The world's major economies in May extended their slowdown, with conditions deteriorating significantly in India and Italy, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, on Monday. Even in Brazil, one of the few economies surveyed that is expanding, the pace of growth slowed.

The OECD's composite leading indicators, or CLI, series, put out on a monthly basis by the OECD is “designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity relative to trend,” according to the organization. The OECD said its CLIs for Japan, the United States and Russia “remain above long-term trend but continue to point to dissipating momentum, especially in the case of Russia.”

The CLIs for the euro area countries pointed to a strong slowdown, the organization said, with Italy being the worst performer. China and India’s economy also slowed down considerably.

Brazil was an outlier, with economic activity rising quickly from a 2011 slowdown to return to that country’s long-term growth trend. But even that good news was tempered by the observation that Brazil's month-on-month growth in May was much less robust than in the previous three months.