French Consumer Spending Falls; Euro Area Jobless Rate Above 10%

Arthi Gupta
31 Jan, 2012
New York City

Euro area jobless rate remain unchanged but stayed above 10% in December as Spanish jobless rate rose to 22.9% and Greek rate to 19.2%. German retail sales dropped and French consumer spending fell in December. Spanish inflation eased in January.

[R]2:30 PM Frankfurt – Euro area jobless rate remain unchanged but stayed above 10% in December as Spanish jobless rate rose to 22.9% and Greek rate to 19.2%. German retail sales dropped and French consumer spending fell in December. Spanish inflation eased in January.[/R]

Euro-zone Jobless Rate Stable

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate in the euro area was unchanged at 10.4% in December, the same as in November, data released by Eurostat showed.

The number of unemployed increased 20,000 to 16.469 million in the euro area from November.

Spain recorded the highest unemployment rate of 22.9% and Greek jobless rate was 19.2% in December.

German Jobless Rate Declines

Germany''s jobless rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 6.7% in January from 6.8% in December, data from the Federal Labor Agency showed today.

The number of unemployed persons fell by 34,000 in January after falling 25,000 a month ago.

Separately, the German unemployment rate declined 15.2% or 420,000 to 2.34 million in December from a year ago, the Federal Statistics Office showed.

On a monthly basis, the number of unemployed fell by 20,000 people or 0.8%.

Hungary Jobless Rate Up

The unemployment rate in Hungary edged up to 10.7% in the October to December period from 10.6% between September and November, data from the Central Statistics Office showed.

The number of unemployed dipped to 459,000 from 460,300 in the three months to November.

Italian Unemployment Climbs

The unemployment rate in Italy advanced to 8.9% in December from 8.8% in November, data from the statistics office Istat showed.

Unemployment rate among youth declined 0.2 percentage points from a month earlier to 31% in December.

German Retail Sales

Germany''s retail sales turnover in real terms, dropped 1.4% in December after falling 1% in November, data published by the Federal Statistics Office showed.

On a yearly basis, retail turnover declined 0.9% in December, offsetting the 0.9% rise in November.

French Consumer Spending Falls

French consumer spending declined 0.7% in December, reversing a 0.1% rise in November, data published by the statistics office Insee showed.

On an annual comparison, spending decreased 3.1% in December, after falling 2.1% in November.

In a separate report, producer prices in the French industry decreased 0.1% on a monthly basis in December, after rising 0.4% in November.

From a year ago, producer prices rose 4.7% in December.

Spanish Inflation Eases

Spain''s consumer price inflation slowed in January to 2% from 2.4% in December. The statistics office is slated to publish final data on February 15.

Italy Producer Price Inflation Slows

Italy''s industrial producer price index rose 3.8% from a year ago in December, following a 4.4% rise in November, data released by the statistics office ISTAT showed today.

From a month ago, producer prices climbed 0.1% in December, after advancing 0.3% in November.

Swiss Consumption Indicator Climbs

Switzerland''s consumption indicator climbed in December, data from UBS bank showed.

The UBS consumption indicator rose to 0.92 in December from 0.78 in November, boosted by new car registrations and the retail sector''s performance.