From a feudal trading hub connecting South with East Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries, Thailand has developed into a rapidly modernising and more urban economy. The second half of the 20th century saw the rapid expansion in manufacturing and services, which underpinned its transformation into an upper-middle-income country.

The Nordics are rightly renowned for being inclusive societies with low inequality compared to other OECD countries. However, some of the largest inequality increases over the past few decades took place in Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Athens on Monday 30 April 2018 to present the 2018 OECD Economic Survey of Greece, alongside Mr. Alexis Tsipras, Prime Minister of Greece.

Greece’s recovery from deep economic depression is finally gaining traction, according to the OECD. Economic growth has started to pick up led by a rise in exports while labour market reforms have improved competitiveness and are helping to create jobs.

Chile’s export growth has disappointed over the past two decades. In particular, exports of goods and services - in volume - have only grown at 1.1% annually over 2009-17 and at around 2.0% for non-copper products and services, compared to 4.2% in the average Latin American country.

Reforming the public sector, long a priority for Thailand, involves several challenges. Among these, insufficient public participation in policy-making is undermining the efficient allocation of resources toward public needs and development goals.

OECD CLIs continue to point to stable growth momentum in the OECD area

Greece is finally recovering from a deep depression. In 2017 GDP expanded by 1.3%, according to initial estimates, and is projected to accelerate to 2% in 2018 and 2.3% in 2019.

Thailand has made remarkable socio-economic progress over the past several decades. Poverty has plummeted and access to education and health services has become near universal.

The analysis suggests that countries with a counter-cyclical fiscal stance typically have a public spending structure that is more supportive of inclusive growth.

Thailand’s path from a low-income to an upper-middle-income country over recent decades is widely hailed as a development success story.

The Peace pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development encompasses a diverse range of issues including stability and effective governance.

Over the past decade, limited structural reform and capital investment have held back productivity growth and improvements in well-being, and Thailand has lost ground vis-à-vis regional comparators.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Washington on 6-7 June 2018 to present the 2018 OECD Economic Survey of the United States.While in Washington, the Secretary-General will hold bilateral meetings with several US high level officials.

The U.S. economy is experiencing one of the longest expansions on record, but the scars left by the Great Recession, as well as challenges posed by globalization and automation shocks, remain visible across the country, according to a new report from the OECD.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Berlin on 11-12 June 2018 to attend a meeting with Chancellor Merkel and Heads of International Organisations. While in Berlin, the Secretary-General will also present the 2018 OECD Economic Survey of Germany.

After a lengthy period of weak growth, the world economy is finally growing around 4%, the historical average of the past few decades.

Network sectors (energy, transport and communications) have undergone a process of liberalisation in Greece in more than a decade.

Global trade imbalances narrowed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. They have remained at a lower level but are still of concern to policy makers because of the risks they pose to individual economies, as well as globally.

Stable growth momentum in the OECD area

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, was in Madrid 13-15 June 2018. The Secretary-General delivered remarks at the event organised by the Consejo Iberoamericano para la Competitividad y Productividad: "Innovación gubernamental para un Estado al servicio de la Sociedad".

The economic expansion in the United States is now one of the longest on record, although it has been sluggish in comparison with previous recoveries. While job growth has reduced the unemployment rate to historically-low levels, many people still remain on the sidelines of the labour market, as shown by the low participation rates of prime age workers.

As discussed in the latest OECD Economic Outlook, the prolonged undershooting of inflation targets, despite massive monetary policy stimulus and stronger economic growth and lower unemployment, raises issues about the appropriateness of current inflation targeting frameworks in advanced economies. While the frameworks differ in detail and implementation, they are principally based on medium-term inflation objectives of 2%.

The European economy is growing robustly, helped by accommodative monetary policy, mildly expansionary fiscal policy and the global acceleration. The current economic expansion should be used to speed up implementation of reforms to the euro area architecture and EU policies that would support greater European integration and ensure stronger, more inclusive long-term growth, according to two new reports from the OECD.

Since the early 2000s, the investment rate has declined, driven by the decrease in business investment.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in The Hague on 2 July 2018 to present the 2018 OECD Economic Survey of The Netherlands. While in The Hague, the Secretary-General will hold bilateral meetings with several Ministers and high-level officials of The Netherlands.

Poland’s catch up with other OECD country has been largely based on productivity growth resulting from restructuring towards more productive sectors and foreign technology absorption.

Poland’s productivity has grown strongly over the past two decades. However, the public and private capital stock is weak, and investment remains focused on the adoption of existing technologies, which weighs on future productivity gains and innovation.

This paper summarises earlier OECD work aimed at quantifying the impact of structural reforms on economic outcomes.

With still large government debt and interest payments in many OECD countries, actively adjusting debt maturity can help to minimise debt servicing costs.

Consecutive years of primary deficits have led to mounting public debt of almost 50% of GDP, one of the fastest increases in Latin America over the last decade.

Lithuania’s economy has grown faster than most other OECD economies over the past 10 years, unemployment continues to fall and public finances have stabilised after a long period of deficits and rising debt.

Stable growth momentum in the OECD area

Low interest rates prevailing in many advanced economies in recent years have already helped to lower the debt servicing burden, but government debt and interest payments remain large in many OECD countries. Could a further reduction in interest payments be attained by "locking-in" current low interest rates?

Policy choices made today can have important positive effects on future living standards, according to new long-term economic scenarios released by the OECD.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Prague on 16 July 2018 on an official visit. He will present the 2018 OECD Economic Survey and the Environmental Performance Review of the Czech Republic.

The Czech economy is thriving, with robust employment, expanding exports and falling government debt. Efforts should now focus on boosting workforce skills and innovation to improve labour supply and productivity, further reduce poverty and inequality, and green the economy, according to two new OECD reports.

This paper presents country-specific effects of structural reforms. It discusses how sizeable and interesting country-specific effects can be identified in a panel setting by conditioning the impact of individual policies on their own level or on the stance of other policies and institutions.

Despite numerous headwinds and adverse shocks, Turkey's real GDP has grown by more than 34% over the past 5 years, faster than any other OECD country except for Ireland and only slightly less than China and India.

Turkey’s business sector exhibits one of the highest investment rates among OECD countries.

Canada is one of the OECD economies delivering the best outcomes for its citizens, especially in regards to self-reported well-being, personal security and health status. Canada is also undertaking several programmes to foster inclusive growth – with respect to childcare benefits, gender equality and social housing.

Growth, driven by both internal and external demand, has been accelerating since 2013 and at 4.6% in 2017 it was more balanced than in previous years. Household consumption is supported by income growth, a declining savings rate as confidence is high, and by rising credit.

Europe’s economy is finally growing robustly. These positive developments provide an opportunity to renew efforts to meet the long-term challenges facing the European Union (EU).

The euro area sovereign debt crisis highlighted important weaknesses in the euro area design. Fiscal policy did not build sufficient buffers before the crisis, which forced some countries to tighten fiscal policy too rapidly during the downturn to restore market confidence in sovereign borrowing.

Canada has long taken in more immigrants relative to its population than most other countries. Immigration policy in Canada aims to promote economic development by selecting immigrants with high levels of human capital, to reunite families and to respond to foreign crises and offer protection to endangered people.

The current Canadian government has declared itself feminist and has taken a number of steps to improve labour market outcomes for women. In terms of employment and labour force participation, Canadian women do much better than the OECD average.

Governments today need to balance the policy goals of boosting economic growth and improving equity when making budget decisions. How can public spending choices promote inclusive growth? What can be learned from previous spending decisions in times of crisis?

The paper examines the possible design and macroeconomic stabilisation properties of a euro area unemployment benefits re-insurance scheme using annual historical data from 2000 to 2016.

Tentative signs of easing growth momentum in the OECD area

Since the start of the Great Recession, labour productivity growth has been weak in the United Kingdom, weaker than in many other OECD countries.