To provide a method for simply hydrolyzing an alkenyl ester compound or cleaving an alkenyl ether compound in good production efficiency without using an acidic compound and an alkaline compound and without needing such a buffer solution or nutrients as used in an enzymatic reaction or in a reaction using a microorganism, and thereby to provide a method for producing the corresponding carboxylic acid or alcohol and the corresponding ketone or aldehyde at low costs.

This method for producing an oxygen-containing compound is characterized by reacting an alkenyl ester compound or an alkenyl ether compound with water in the presence of the compound of a metal belonging to the groups 2 to 13 in the periodic table, preferably the compound of a transition metal belonging to the group 8 to 11 in the periodic table, more preferably the complex of a transition metal belonging to the group 9 or 10 to produce the corresponding carboxylic acid or alcohol and the corresponding ketone or aldehyde in high yields.