THE Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has declared that its latest composite leading indicator for the UK points to a "firming" of economic growth.
The Paris-based think-tank reported yesterday that its leading indicator for the UK had risen from 100.7 in May to 100.8 in June.
Looking at the global picture, the OECD said its composite leading indicators continued to signal diverging growth patterns across major economies, pointing to moderate improvements in expansion in most major OECD countries but stabilising or slowing momentum in large emerging economies.
It highlighted signs of slowing momentum in China, Russia, and Brazil.
The OECD also noted signs of firming economic growth in the US and Japan.
In the eurozone as a whole, the OECD's latest leading indicator points to "growth gaining momentum", with expansion returning to trend in Germany and relatively stable momentum in France.
The OECD also noted signs of a positive change in momentum in Italy.
Its leading indicators are designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity relative to trend.
The OECD's leading indicator for the UK has risen from 99 in December 2011. In June 2012, it stood at 99.4.
Commenting on the latest rise in the UK leading indicator, Howard Archer, chief UK economist at consultancy IHS Global Insight, said: "A current plethora of decent data and surveys across a wide range of sectors indicate that the UK economy has started off the third quarter very well, after GDP (gross domestic product) growth doubled to 0.6% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter from 0.3% quarter-on-quarter in the first."
He added: "We now expect GDP growth to improve to 0.7% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter, and it could very well come in higher still.
"Significantly, this would mark the first time that the economy has achieved two successive quarters of GDP growth of at least 0.5% quarter-on-quarter since the first two quarters of 2010."
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