Composite leading indicators continue to point to severe slowdown in OECD area. - The composite leading indicators (CLI) for February 2009 continue to point to a deep slowdown in the seven major OECD economies, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has announced. The OECD CLI is designed to provide early signals of turning points in business cycles. The CLI for the OECD area decreased by 0.6 point in February 2009 compared with January 2009 and was 9.7 points lower than in February 2008. Although some tentative signs of improvement in the rate of deterioration in the outlook are appearing in some countries, noticeably Italy, France and in some of the smaller OECD countries, the emphasis on “tentative” cannot be overstated. The picture for all countries remains weak with the outlook in the United States, Canada, Japan and the major non-OECD member economies in particular, further deteriorating since last month. The euro area's CLI decreased by 0.2 point in February and stood 8.2 points lower than a year ago. In closer detail, it fell by 0.2 point in the United Kingdom in February 2009, compared with January, and was 6.6 points lower than a year ago. For France, the CLI increased by 0.1 point in February but was 4.7 points lower than a year ago. The CLI for Germany fell by 0.3 point in February and was 12.9 points lower than a year ago. For Italy, the CLI increased by 0.4 point in February but stood 4.1 points lower than a year ago. The CLI also fell by 0.7 point for China, 0.8 point for India, 1.9 point for the Russian Federation and 2.4 points for Brazil, all compared with January. (I.L./transl.rt)