World's Richest Countries Suffered Slight Economic Contraction In 4Q 2012: OECD

The economies of the world's richest countries, except for China, fell by an overall 0.1 percent at the end of last year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday.

Companies reducing their inventory of products pulled down real GDP in the OECD by 0.3 percentage points. A contraction in government consumption reduced GDP by an additional 0.1 percentage point.

Those reductions were partially offset by contributions from private consumption, gross fixed capital formation and net exports, the OECD said, which includes 34 developed economies, including the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, Italy and France. China, the world's second-largest economy and one that grew throughout last year, is not a member of the OECD.

The biggest decline came in Italy, down 0.9 percentage points, while Canada posted a relatively robust 0.2 percentage point gain.