The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday raised its growth projections for Germany, France and the U.K., while downgrading the U.S. growth outlook further. Despite the pick-up in the advanced economies, the Paris-based think-tank said the slowdown in the emerging economies that account for a large share of the global economy, signals sluggish near term growth globally. The activity is expanding at encouraging rates in North America, Japan and the United Kingdom, while the euro area as a whole is no longer in recession, the OECD said in its Interim Economic Assessment. OECD forecasts 0.7 percent growth for Germany, which was slightly better than the May estimate of 0.4 percent. The second largest euro area economy, France is expected to recover this year, with GDP set to grow by 0.3 percent compared to a 0.3 percent drop estimated previously. Meanwhile, the Italian economy is expected to contract, as previously estimated, by 1.8 percent in 2013. The OECD called for maintaining supportive monetary conditions in the euro area. Further, it assessed that scope for further monetary easing remains if the Eurozone recovery were to fail to take hold. For the U.S., the organization estimated 1.7 percent growth instead of the 1.9 percent expansion projected in May. GDP growth in Japan is pegged at 1.6 percent, unchanged from the May projection. U.K.'s economic growth is seen at 1.5 percent, up from 0.8 percent forecast in May. OECD Deputy Chief Economist Jorgen Elmeskov said, "The gradual pick-up in momentum in the advanced economies is encouraging but a sustainable recovery is not yet firmly established." Economic growth in China is forecast to pick up to 7.4 percent by the final quarter, after a slowdown in the first half of 2013. Even that would represent a slower rate than in recent years, the group said. China's 2013 GDP estimate was revised down from 7.8 percent and was slightly below the government's 7.5 percent target. Growth slowed in some of the large emerging economies. The one reason behind the weakness was a rise in global bond yields, triggered in part by the expected scaling back of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing. As advanced and emerging economies face the challenge of slower trend growth, the OECD urged governments to boost reforms to support growth, rebalance the global economy and reduce structural impediments to create jobs. The unemployment rates stand far above the pre-crisis levels in both Eurozone and the U.S. In order to avoid high rates getting entrenched even as a recovery takes hold, governments must take effective policies, it said.