French Investment Growth Lowered, Swedish Jobless Rate Flat

Arthi Gupta
11 May, 2012
New York City

German and Spanish inflation rose but Swedish jobless rate remained unchanged in April. French manufacturing industry estimated investment growth at 6% this year.

[R]1:00 PM Frankfurt – German and Spanish inflation rose but Swedish jobless rate remained unchanged in April. French manufacturing industry estimated investment growth at 6% this year.[/R]

German Inflation Rises

Germany''s harmonized index of consumer prices increased 2.2% on an annual basis in April compared to the 2.3% growth in March, final data released by the Federal Statistics Office showed today.

On a monthly basis, the HICP eased to 0.1% in April, slower than the 0.2% growth as per the preliminary estimates and also slower than the 0.4% gain in March.

Spanish Inflation Climbs

Spain''s inflation, as measured by the harmonized index of consumer prices, rose to 2% annually in April, from 1.8% in March, according to final data released by the statistics office INE today.

Hungarian Inflation Up

Hungary''s annual consumer price inflation increased to 5.7% in April from 5.5% in March, data released by the Central Statistics Office showed.

Food prices advanced 4.2% annually in April, while clothing and footwear prices climbed 2%.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices increased 0.8% in April, in line with the growth recorded in March.

French Investment Growth Estimate Cut

Business leaders in French manufacturing industry downgraded their investment growth estimate for 2012 comparing to the previous survey, in January, the latest survey of industrial investment from the statistics office Insee showed.

Investment growth is estimated at 6% for this year comparing to 2011, down from the prior estimate of 7%. This downwards revision concern all sectors except those of manufacture of transport equipment.

Swedish Jobless Rate Flat

Sweden''s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3% in April from last year, data released by the Public Employment Service showed.

The number of persons registered as unemployed increased to 198,972 at the end of April from 193,926 a year earlier.