Euro Area PPI Eases; Fourth Monthly Rise in Spanish Unemployment

Arthi Gupta
02 Dec, 2011
New York City

Producer price inflation in the euro area eased and retail sales in Switzerland remained unchanged in October. Spanish unemployment rose for the fourth month in a row. Hungarian trade surplus was revised lower in September.

[R]2:00 PM Frankfurt – Producer price inflation in the euro area eased and retail sales in Switzerland remained unchanged in October. Spanish unemployment rose for the fourth month in a row. Hungarian trade surplus was revised lower in September.[/R]

Euro-zone PPI Eases

Annual producer price inflation in the euro area, excluding construction, eased to 5.5% in October from 5.8% in September, data released by statistics office Eurostat showed today.

In the EU27, output price inflation slowed to 6.4% in October from 6.9% in September.

Producer prices of intermediate goods rose 4.2% annually, while energy prices surged 12.4% in October.

On a monthly basis, producer prices gained 0.1% in October as against the 0.3% rise in September.

Spanish Unemployment Rises, Export Price Inflation Eases

The jobless rate in Spain rose for the fourth month in a row in November, data released by the Labor Ministry showed on Friday.

Data from the Public Employment Services shows that unemployed rose 59,536 or 1.37% in November to 4,420,462, up from 4,360,926 in October.

Youth unemployment for the age below 25 rose 1.98%, or 9,455 persons and older than 25 increased 1.29% or 50,081 in absolute terms.

Spain has the highest unemployment within euro area with the jobless rate staying persistently above 20% and the trend is expected to continue next year.

Separately, Spanish export price inflation slowed to 5.3% annually in October from 5.4% in September, the statistics office INE reported. On a monthly basis, export prices remained flat in October after rising 0.2% in September.

Swiss Retail Sales Flat

Retail sales in Switzerland remained unchanged on an annual basis in October, the Federal Statistics Office said. In nominal terms, retail sales dropped 3.3% from a year ago in October.

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, sales rose 2.5% in real terms and 1.6% nominally.

Hungary Surplus Revised Down

Hungary''s merchandise trade surplus increased from a month earlier in September, but was slightly below the value estimated in the preliminary report, final data released by the Central Statistics Office showed today.

The trade surplus increased to €740.6 million in September from €501.3 million in August and €506.6 million a year earlier. According to the preliminary report, the surplus was €741.5 million.