Major economies show signs of peak in expansion: OECD

Major global economies are showing clearer signs of a moderation in the pace of expansion in July compared to the previous month's assessment, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in its latest report released yesterday.

Paris-based watchdog of global economy said that the composite leading indicators (CLIs) for July 2010 decreased by 0.1 for the OECD area, signalling peak in expansion of the economies in the coming months.

OECD has 33 members and current data covers 29 industrialised member countries and 6 non-member developing economies.

''In Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, China, and India there are stronger signals of a slower pace of economic growth in coming months than was anticipated in last month's release, the report said.

''Stronger signals that the expansion may lose momentum have emerged in Japan, the United States, and Brazil. Tentative signals have also emerged that the expansion phases of Germany and Russia may soon peak, it further stated.

The CLI is computed based on a wide range of parameters of the economic activity in respect of each country. It is intended to signal turning points of business cycles–peaks and troughs–and have had a good track record of depicting qualitative information on short-term economic movements around its long term potential level of 100.