Euro Area Inflation at 2.7%; Swiss Sentiment Improves

Arthi Gupta
14 Mar, 2012
New York City

The euro area annual inflation remained flat in February but industrial output rebounded in January. Swedish jobless rate fell in February. Swiss sentiment improved in March.

[R]2:30 PM Frankfurt – The euro area annual inflation remained flat in February but industrial output rebounded in January. Swedish jobless rate fell in February. Swiss sentiment improved in March.[/R]

Euro Area Annual Inflation Steady

The euro area annual inflation was 2.7% in February, unchanged compared to January, according to Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union. A year earlier the rate was 2.4%.

Monthly inflation was 0.5% in February 2012.

EU annual inflation was 3% in February, up from 2.9% in January. A year earlier the rate was 2.9%.

Monthly inflation was 0.5% in February 2012.

Euro-zone Production Rebounds

Industrial production in the euro area rose 0.2% from a month ago in January compared to the 1.1% fall in December, Eurostat said today.

On a yearly basis, industrial production eased to 1.2% in January from the 1.8% drop in December.

Hungarian Output Drops

Hungary''s industrial output decreased a working-day adjusted 2.7% on an annual basis in January, unrevised from the preliminary data, final data from the Hungarian Central Statistics Office showed. In December, the annual growth rate was 6.7%.

From a month ago, industrial production increased a seasonally and working-day adjusted 2.1% in January, following a 7.3% fall in December.

Swedish Jobless Rate Drops

Sweden''s unemployment rate fell to 4.7% in February from 4.8% in January, data from the Public Employment Service showed.

At the end of February, 404,000 persons registered as unemployed, 4,000 more than a year ago.

Finnish Factory Turnover Up

Finland''s factory turnover increased 2.9% on an annual basis in the fourth quarter after rising 8.2% in the previous quarter, data from Statistics Finland showed.

Sales in the domestic market rose 3.8%, while export market turnover increased 2.1% annually.

Swiss Sentiment Improves

Economic expectations for Switzerland improved markedly for the third month in March, data from a survey by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and Credit Suisse showed.

The ZEW-CS indicator increased 21.2 points to the zero level in March.