OECD Lifts European Growth Forecasts on Recovery

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development lifted its growth forecasts for Germany, France and the U.K. while urging the region’s most-indebted nations to step up changes to improve competitiveness.

Germany will expand 0.7 percent this year instead of the 0.4 percent predicted in May, while France will grow 0.3 percent instead of shrinking 0.3 percent as previously predicted, the Paris-based organization said in an interim report published today. Growth in the U.K., which isn’t part of the euro bloc, will be 1.5 percent, instead of the 0.8 percent forecast in May.