According to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office, joblessness in the Eurozone increased by 173,000 in October. This latest jump has taken unemployment to 11.7 percent from 11.6 per cent in September.
In the same period last year unemployment stood at 9.9 per cent, but now an estimated 19 million people across the 17-nation currency bloc are out of work.
Although the unemployment rate in some members of the Eurozone, like Austria, is low it isn’t enough to combat the record high levels of unemployment in other nations, like Spain. In Austria the joblessness levels are at just 4.3 per cent while in Spain they have hit 26.2 per cent.
However, the report also showed that annual inflation in the Eurozone had dropped from 2.5 per cent in October to 2.2 per cent in November, beating economist’s expectations by 0.2 per cent.
Additionally, the data compiled by the statistics office established that a drop in consumer inflation to within reaching distance of the European Central Banks target was largely due to one of the years smallest rises in energy price inflation.
This morning European Central Bank President Mario Draghi commented: ‘We have not yet emerged from the crisis. The recovery for most of the Eurozone will certainly begin in the second half of 2013.’
Also today German retain sales were shown to have plummeted by 2.8 per cent in October, hitting their lowest level for almost four-years while the Italian seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate soared to 11.1, a 13 year high and greater than the 10.9 estimate supplied by economists. In September the Italian unemployment rate stood at 10.8 per cent.
As of 10:30 am
The Pound to Euro exchange rate is currently trading at 1.2335
The Pound to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.6031
The Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.5395
The Euro to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.2994
The Euro to Pound exchange rate is currently trading at 0.8105
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