OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; French: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, OCDE) is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries,[1][4] founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is a forum and its members are countries which describe themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques
Founding member countries (1961)   Other member countries
Abbreviation	OECD OCDE
Established	16 April 1948 (1948-04-16) (as OEEC) September 1961 (1961-09) (as OECD)
Type	Intergovernmental organisation
Headquarters	Château de la Muette Paris, France
Membership	38 countries[1][2]  Australia  Austria  Belgium  Canada  Chile  Colombia  Costa Rica  Czech Republic  Denmark  Estonia  Finland  France  Germany  Greece  Hungary  Iceland  Ireland  Israel  Italy  Japan  Latvia  Lithuania  Luxembourg  Mexico  Netherlands  New Zealand  Norway  Poland  Portugal  Slovakia  Slovenia  South Korea  Spain  Sweden  Switzerland  Turkey  United Kingdom  United States
Official languages	English French
Secretary-General	Mathias Cormann
Deputy Secretaries-General	Ludger Schuknecht Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen Masamichi Kono
Budget	€386 million (2019)[3]
Website	www.oecd.org

The majority of OECD members are high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index (HDI) and are regarded as developed countries. Their collective population is 1.38 billion.[5] As of 2017^[update], the OECD member countries collectively comprised 62.2% of global nominal GDP (US$49.6 trillion)[6] and 42.8% of global GDP (Int$54.2 trillion) at purchasing power parity.[7] The OECD is an official United Nations observer.[8]

In 1948, the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC),[9] was established to help administer the Marshall Plan, which was rejected by both the Soviet Union and its satellite states.[10] This would be achieved by allocating United States financial aid and implementing economic programs for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II.[11] Only Western European states were members of the OEEC. Its Secretary General were the Frenchmen Robert Marjolin (1948–1955) and then René Sergent (1955–1960). In 1961, the OEEC was reformed into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the membership was extended to non-European states, the USA and Canada.[12][13]

The OECD's headquarters are at the Château de la Muette in Paris, France.[14] The OECD is funded by contributions from member countries at varying rates and had a total budget of € 386 million in 2019.[3]

The OECD is recognised as a highly influential publisher of mostly economic data through publications as well as annual evaluations and rankings of member countries.[15]