Euro Zone Construction Output Eases; German Employment Rises

Arthi Gupta
17 Nov, 2011
New York City

The gross domestic product in the OECD area and German employment rose in the third quarter. Construction output in the euro zone increased 0.4% annually in September. Dutch jobless rate rose in October. Swiss economic expectations declined in November.

[R]1:30 PM Frankfurt – The gross domestic product in the OECD area and German employment rose in the third quarter. Construction output in the euro zone increased 0.4% annually in September. Dutch jobless rate rose in October. Swiss economic expectations declined in November.[/R]

OECD Area Economy Expands

The gross domestic product in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development area increased 0.6% sequentially in the third quarter, faster than the 0.3% growth in the second quarter, driven mainly by strong growth in Japan, preliminary data showed today.

Growth in the euro-zone and the European Union remained stagnant at 0.2% in the third quarter.

Euro-zone Construction Output Eases

Construction output in the euro area increased 0.4% on an annual basis in September, slower than the 1.9% growth in August, revised down from 2.5%, data released by statistics office Eurostat showed today.

In EU27, output advanced 0.6% annually in September, following the 1.3% growth in August.

On a monthly basis, construction production decreased a seasonally adjusted 1.3% in September, after falling 0.4% in August, revised up from 0.2%.

German Employment Rises

German employment rose 248,000 or 0.6% in the third quarter from a quarter ago, due to seasonal factors, the Federal Statistics Office said today.

The annual increase in employment was at 495,000 people or 1.2% in the third quarter.

Swiss Economic Expectations Fall

Economic expectations for Switzerland fell in November, latest survey results from the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) and Credit Suisse showed.

The ZEW-CS-Indicator dropped 9.9 points to the -64.3. The assessment of the current economic situation also deteriorated 16.2 points to -4.8.

Swedish Home Prices Drop

Home prices in Sweden decreased in October, data released by Statistics Sweden showed on Thursday.

Prices of one-or two-dwelling buildings decreased 2% on a monthly basis in October, after remaining unchanged in September. The average price of a home in Sweden decreased to SEK 1.82 million in October from SEK 1.98 million in September.

Dutch Jobless Rate, Confidence Up

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the Netherlands increased to 5.8% in October from 5.6% in September, data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics showed. The number of jobless persons increased to around 455,000 in October from around 438,000 in September.

The number of jobless persons on benefits increased 0.4% on a monthly basis to around 253,000 in October.

Separately, Dutch consumer confidence improved unexpectedly in November, survey data from Statistics Netherlands showed. The consumer sentiment index rose to -32 in November, from -33 in October.