The outlook for the economyhas brightened somewhat for Canada and two countries critical to Canadian exporters, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The Paris-based global economic organization said Monday that its composite leading indicator points to stabilizing growth in Canada,as well as in the United States and China — two economies that impact Canadian exports.
Index ticks higher
The OECD did not issue growth projections, but the new leading indicator reading for Canada shows a small rise of 0.02 percentagepoints in September, after going unchanged in August and dropping slightly in theprevious three months.
For the U.S., Canada's biggest export market by far,the index rose one-tenth of a point, while China's steep decline appears to have been arrested.
Canadian policy-makers have noted they were becoming more optimistic that the U.S. finally appears poised for a more sustained recovery and have been encouraged by the recent pickup in home prices and home construction south of the border.
The organization also said data from United Kingdom and Brazil point to a pickup in growth and that there were tentative signs of economic stabilization emerging in Italy.
Despite the bright spots, the overall finding of the OECD's index, which is designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity, is that economies in many major industrialized countries remains soft.
European slowdown
"The (leading indicators) for Japan, Germany, France and the euro area as a whole continue to point to weak growth," the report states, adding that is also true for India and Russia,
