Greek Jobless Rate at 22.5%, Euro Area Output Improves

Arthi Gupta
12 Jul, 2012
New York City

Greek jobless rate rose to a record high in April. German wholesale price inflation eased but French annual inflation remained unchanged in June. Industrial production in the euro area improved and Dutch exports soared in May.

[R]1:00 PM Frankfurt – Greek jobless rate rose to a record high in April. German wholesale price inflation eased but French annual inflation remained unchanged in June. Industrial production in the euro area improved and Dutch exports soared in May.[/R]

Euro-zone Production Improves

Industrial production in euro-zone improved in May, the latest data from Eurostat showed.

Production rose 0.6% on a monthly basis in May, following a 1.1% decrease in April. Annually, output fell 2.8%, faster than the 2.4% fall reported in April.

German Wholesale Price Inflation Eases

Wholesale price inflation in Germany eased to 1.1% in June from 1.7% in May, the Federal Statistics Office said.

From a month ago, the wholesale price index fell 1.1% in June following a 0.75% decline in May.

French Inflation Stable

French annual inflation remained unchanged in June, data from the statistics office Insee showed today.

Inflation, as measured by the harmonized index of consumer prices, rose 2.3% from a year ago in June, the same rate as in May.

On a monthly basis, the index rose 0.1% in June.

Swedish Inflation Rises

Sweden''s annual consumer price inflation rose to 1% in June following the 0.7% rise in May, data released by Statistics Sweden showed.

Compared to April, consumer prices fell 0.2% in May.

Dutch Exports Soar

Dutch exports gained 8.6% annually in May compared to the 5.9% increase recorded in April, the latest data from Statistics Netherlands showed. This was the strongest result since January 2011.

Imports rose 6.6% in May following a 6.8% gain in April.

The value of exported goods totaled €36.9 billion and that of imports was €33.3 billion resulting in a trade surplus of €3.6 billion euro, €0.4 billion higher than in May 2011.

Greek Jobless Rate Surges

Greece''s unemployment rate increased to a record high in April, data released by the Hellenic Statistics Authority showed.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed to 22.5% in April from 22% in March.

The number of unemployed persons in the country advanced 2.5% from a month ago to around 1.11 million in April. Compared to April last year, the number of jobless persons surged 38.4%.