PARIS (AFP) - Growth in advanced economies picked up speed in the second quarter, rising to 0.5 per cent from 0.3 per cent at the beginning of the year with a sharp recovery in the eurozone, the OECD said on Thursday.

The increase was driven by the United States, Germany and Britain, and a big bounce by France, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on the basis of provisional data.

But the Japanese economy slipped back.

The OECD is a research and policy forum for 34 leading democratic economies.

The British economy showed growth of 0.6 per cent and the United States 0.4 per cent. Both had shown growth of 0.3 per cent in the first quarter.

Germany's gross domestic product (GDP), grew by 0.7 per cent from a flat growth rate.

The OECD said that the eurozone had switched into growth of 0.3 per cent from contraction of 0.3 per cent in the first quarter.

Noting for the eurozone "the first GDP expansion since the third quarter of 2011," the OECD also reported that trailing eurozone-member France rallied to growth of 0.5 per cent from contraction of 0.2 per cent.

Growth in Japan, however, slowed in the period, to 0.6 per cent from 0.9 per cent, and Italy saw its economy shrink for the eighth month running, by 0.2 per cent from a contraction of 0.6 per cent in the first quarter.

Year-on-year, the OECD said output among its members had grown by 0.9 per cent.