OECD Cuts 2004 US Growth Forecast To 4.3 Percent

PARIS (AFP) - Growth of the US economy this year is likely to be 4.3 percent, the OECD forecast, lowering an earlier forecast of 4.7 percent.
But the Japanese economy was set to grow by 4.4 percent instead of 3.0 percent forecast earlier and the eurozone by 2.0 percent instead of 1.6 percent.
The OECD also revised upwards its forecast for German growth to 1.7 percent from 1.1 percent and for growth in France to 2.7 percent from 2.0 percent
OECD chief economist Jean-Philippe Cotis told a press conference that leading industrialised countries overall were set for "relatively strong" growth in the second half of this year.
Growth in OECD economies had slowed in the second quarter, he said.
But the Group of Six (G6) countries, comprising the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Britain should achieve quite substantial growth of 3.5 percent at an annual rate in the second half of the year, he said.
The rise of the price of oil had had only a "modest" effect so far on the way people anticipated inflation and this was a good sign for the way interest rates would evolve, he told a news conference.