French Output Rises, Sentiment Flat; Greek Unemployment at 21.7%

Arthi Gupta
10 May, 2012
New York City

Greek jobless rate rose to 21.7% in February, French manufacturing output unexpectedly rose and Spanish home transfers declined in March. Czech annual inflation eased and jobless rate dropped in April.

[R]1:00 PM Frankfurt – Greek jobless rate rose to 21.7% in February, French manufacturing output unexpectedly rose and Spanish home transfers declined in March. Czech annual inflation eased and jobless rate dropped in April.[/R]

French Output Rises, Sentiment Flat

France''s manufacturing output increased a seasonally and working-day adjusted 1.4% from a month ago in March, following a revised 0.9% drop in February, data released by the statistics office INSEE showed today. The latest gain is the biggest since July last year, when output rose 1.7%.

Annually, factory output fell 0.3% in March, after dropping 3.2% in February.

Separately, French business confidence remained unchanged at 95 in April; survey results from the Bank of France showed. Likewise, confidence in the service sector held steady at 93 in April.

Italian Production Up 0.5%

Italy''s industrial production increased a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in March from the 0.7% fall in February, data released by the statistics office ISTAT showed.

From a year ago, production declined a calendar-adjusted 5.8% in March following a 6.8% drop in February.

Greek Unemployment Rate Up

Greece''s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 21.7% in February from 21.3% in January, data published by the Hellenic Statistics Authority showed. The jobless rate rose to its highest level on record in February.

A year ago, the rate was at 15.2% in February.

Czech Inflation Eases, Jobless Rate Drops

Czech annual inflation eased to 3.5% in April from 3.8% in March, the Czech Statistics Office said. Prices of goods and services rose 3.9% and 3.1%, respectively.

Separately, the unemployment rate in the Czech Republic dropped to 8.4% in April from 8.9% in March, data released by the Labor Ministry showed.

The number of unemployed persons in the country decreased to 497,322 in April from about 525,200 in March.

Swedish Inflation Slows

Inflation in Sweden eased to its lowest level in 20 months in April, data from Statistics Sweden showed today.

The rate of inflation, measured by the consumer price index, slowed to 1.3% in April from 1.5% in March. This was the lowest rate since June 2010.

Spanish Home Transfers Fall

Property transfers involving new homes declined 24.3% annually in March, Spain''s statistics office INE reported today.

On a monthly basis transactions dropped 25.8%. On an accumulated basis, new house transfers fell 22.7% from a year ago.