PARIS - Gross domestic product (GDP) in the G20 area grew by 1.3% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of 2022 according to provisional estimates, after shrinking by 0.3% in the second quarter (Figure 1). By contrast, in the OECD area GDP growth remained weak in Q3 2022 at 0.4%.[1]

The bounce back in the G20 area in the third quarter mainly reflected a recovery in China,[2] as some of the country’s strictest COVID-19 lockdowns began to be eased. China’s GDP grew by 3.9% quarter-on-quarter after contracting by 2.7% in Q2 2022. The economy also recovered in the United States, with GDP growing by 0.7% in Q3 2022 after contracting by 0.1% in the previous quarter, driven by net exports (exports minus imports) as noted in the latest OECD GDP growth release. Together, China and the United States contributed four-fifths of the 1.3% G20 growth figure in Q3 2022. GDP growth also recovered in South Africa and India, while GDP continued to grow in Germany and Saudi Arabia (Table 1).

Despite the recovery in the G20 area as a whole, Japan, the United Kingdom and Türkiye recorded slight contractions in Q3 2022 (Figure 1). GDP growth lost momentum in Q3 2022 in the eight remaining G20 economies for which data is available, slowing the most in relative terms in Brazil (0.4%, compared with 1.0% in the previous quarter), Italy (0.5%, compared with 1.1%), Korea (0.3%, compared with 0.7%) and France (0.2%, compared with 0.5%). The slowdown was more moderate in Australia, Canada, Indonesia and Mexico.

In the third quarter of 2022, GDP in the G20 area exceeded its pre-pandemic (Q4 2019) level by 6.0% (Figure 2). The United Kingdom was the only G20 country that had not yet recovered its pre-pandemic level, following revisions to the historical series[