The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says there are fragile signs that the economic crisis driving recession in many countries may be easing.
But the OECD said the damaging effects of the global crisis were still worsening in many emerging economies.
The OECD said that although it was too soon to say if data for leading industrialised countries marked 'a temporary or a more durable turning point', its index of leading indicators showed that the contraction was easing.
The latest monthly figures, for April, 'point to a reduced pace of deterioration in most of the OECD economies with stronger signals of a possible trough in Canada, France, Italy and the UK,' the OECD said.
Compared with data for the previous month, the OECD said positive signals were also emerging in Germany, Japan and the US.
This data for April appears to run parallel with signals from many leading stock markets, which have rallied strongly since the first week of March.
But the OECD warned that countries outside its 30-member group still faced deteriorating conditions, with the exception of China and India.
