Euro Area Inflation at 2.7%; Greek Unemployment Soars to 15.9%

Arthi Gupta
16 Jun, 2011
New York City

Euro-zone annual inflation eased in May and employment remained flat in the first quarter. The jobless rate in Greece surged in the first quarter to 15.9%. Switzerland left key rate unchanged at 0.25%. Dutch retail sales improved in April.

[R]1:15 PM Frankfurt – Euro-zone annual inflation eased in May and employment remained flat in the first quarter. The jobless rate in Greece surged in the first quarter to 15.9%. Switzerland left key rate unchanged at 0.25%. Dutch retail sales improved in April.[/R]

Euro Area Annual Inflation Eases

Euro-zone annual inflation eased to 2.7% in May, from 2.8% recorded in April, Eurostat said.

Core inflation that excludes fresh food and energy rose to 1.7% in May from 1.6% in April. The inflation index rose the most since April 2009, when it increased 1.8%.

Euro Area Employment Flat

The number of employed persons in the euro-zone remained unchanged in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter after adjusting to seasonal variations, but advanced 0.1% from last year, data from Eurostat showed.

In the fourth quarter, employment increased 0.2% on a quarterly basis and rose 0.2% annually.

In European Union member states, employment remained unchanged on a quarterly basis, following the 0.1% increase in the fourth quarter. Annually, employment rose 0.3%.

Greek Jobless Rate Soars

Unemployment in Greece increased in the first quarter, data released by the Hellenic Statistics Authority showed today.

The unemployment rate rose to 15.9% in the first quarter from 14.2% in the fourth quarter. In the first quarter of 2010, the jobless rate was 11.7%. Unemployment among youth, aged between 15 and 29, was 30.9%.

The number of jobless persons increased 11.3% on a quarterly basis to 792,601 and on an annual basis surged 35.1% in the first quarter.

The percentage of long-term unemployed, persons looking for a job for more than one year, was 46.6% during the quarter.

Austria Inflation Slackens

Austria''s consumer price index advanced 3.2% annually in May, after growing 3.3% in April, data released by Statistics Austria showed on Thursday.

Prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks rose 4.7% and clothing prices climbed 3.5% in May. There was a 2.7% annual growth in housing costs and utility prices.

SNB Holds Key Rate

The Swiss National Bank left its key interest rate, the three-month Libor, unchanged at 0.25%.

However, the central bank maintained its real growth forecast for 2011 at around 2% and estimates inflation to average 0.9%, slightly up from the 0.8% prior estimate.

Swiss Industrial Production Slows

Swiss industrial production grew at a slower pace in the first quarter, according to data from the Federal Statistics Office released today.

Production increased 5% annually in the first quarter compared to the revised 6.4% recorded in the previous quarter.

Dutch Retail Sales Improves

Dutch retail sales increased 3.4% annually in April, following a revised 1.5% gain in March, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics showed.

In food stores, sales value climbed 5.4% in April, faster than the 3.1% gain in March. Sales value at non-food shops grew 1.3% in April, recovering from a decline in March.

Sweden Home Prices Steady

Sweden''s home prices remained unchanged in the March-May period, data released by Statistics Sweden showed today.

The average price for a one-or-two dwelling building was SEK 2.04 million in the period, while the total number of purchases was 9,762.