Exhaust gas purifying catalyst

An exhaust gas purifying catalyst comprising:

• a catalyst substrate;
• an inner catalyst layer (a) being supported by the catalyst substrate;
• an outer catalyst layer (b) being supported by the inner catalyst layer (a);
• the inner catalyst layer (a) comprising a noble metal, an oxide compound comprising CeO2 and ZrO2, which have a ZrO2:CeO2 weight ratio greater than 50/100 and less than or equal to 100/70, and an element selected from a group consisting of rare earth elements, alkaline earth elements and Y;
• the outer catalyst layer (b) comprising a noble metal and a compound oxide comprising at least first and second elements of a group consisting of the first element, the second element and a third element, a ratio of the noble metal in the inner catalyst layer (a) to the noble metal in the outer catalyst layer (b) is within 3.5:1 to 1.1:1;
• and
• the noble metal in the inner catalyst coating layer (a) is at least one member selected from the group consisting of Pd and Pt,
• the noble metal in the outer catalyst coating layer (b) comprises at least Rh;
• the first element being ZrO2;
• the second element being selected from a group consisting of rare earth elements, alkaline earth elements and Y;
• and
• the third element being CeO2, if the compound oxide of the outer catalyst layer (b) comprises the third element, a ZrO2:CeO2 weight ratio of the first element and the third element is less than or equal to 20/100,
• the outer catalyst layer (b) includes a surface region and a region other than the surface region, the surface region contains an amount of the noble metal of the outer catalyst layer (b) and the amount of the noble metal of the outer catalyst layer (b) contained in the surface region is smaller than an amount of the noble metal of the outer catalyst layer (b) contained in the region other than the surface region.