GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF THE MACROECONOMIC SITUATION

摘要

Against the backdrop of rising and volatile oil prices,coupled with exchange rate shifts,OECD-wide growth slowed in the course of 2004.Performance,however,diverged across countries.Momentum slackened less in the United States,the United Kingdom and France than in Japan,Germany and Italy,where activity decelerated markedly,even contracting for a time.Elsewhere,growth generally proved quite robust.