The euro zone is showing tentative signs of improvement, the latest monthly readout from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showed today.
The OECD's leading indicator, a measure that seeks to flag turning points in economic activity, rose for the euro zone area in January and also turned positive in Britain, adding 0.2 percentage points in the common currency bloc and 0.1 percentage points in Britain.
Improvements detected in previous months in the US and Japan continued, with rises respectively of 0.7 and 0.5 percentage points in January, the Paris-based economic think tank said in a statement.
"The US and Japan continue to drive the overall position but stronger, albeit tentative, signals are beginning to emerge within all other major OECD economies and the Euro area as a whole," it said.
Brazil and China, however, still showed signs of weakening, said the OECD, which reported a 0.6 point drop for China and 0.2 point drop for Brazil in January.
The OECD grouping of more than 30 mostly industrialised nations said its measure rose for a third month in a row in in January, this time by 0.4 points, marginally more than the rises of the previous months.
The group provides analysis and advice on a wide range of policy areas to its member governments.
