Euro Zone Confidence Weakens, German Jobless Rate at 6.8%

Arthi Gupta
30 Aug, 2012
New York City

Euro zone sentiment weakened, German unemployment rate held at 6.8%, Spanish inflation rose and Danish industrial confidence deteriorated in August. Swedish current account surplus declined in the second quarter.

[R]12:30 PM Frankfurt – Euro zone sentiment weakened, German unemployment rate held at 6.8%, Spanish inflation rose and Danish industrial confidence deteriorated in August. Swedish current account surplus declined in the second quarter.[/R]

Euro Zone Confidence Weakens

Euro zone economic sentiment index declined to 86.1 in August from 87.9 in July, European Commission said today.

Consumer confidence fell to -24.6 in August from -21.5 in July. Confidence in services fell to -10.8 in August from -8.5 a month ago.

Separately, business confidence rose by 0.06 points to -1.21 in August.

German Unemployment Rate at 6.8%

Germany''s unemployment fell in July, the Federal Statistics Office Destatis said today.

The number of unemployed declined 137,000 to 2.41 million in July from a year ago.

Compared the previous month of June, the number of unemployed increased by 224,000 persons on seasonal reasons.

Separately, Germany''s unemployment increased 9,000 to 2.90 million in August from July, the Federal Labor Agency reported today.

The jobless rate remained unchanged at 6.8% in August.

Spanish Inflation Rises

Spain''s inflation, as measured by the harmonized index of consumer prices rose to 2.7% in August from 2.2% in July, flash estimate from the statistics office Ine showed.

Danish Jobless Rate Steady; Confidence Worsens

Denmark''s seasonally adjusted jobless rate for July was at 6.3%, unchanged from June, data released by Statistics Denmark showed. The number of unemployed rose by 1,500 persons to 165,700 in July.

Separately, the agency reported that Danish industrial confidence declined to zero in August from 5 in July.

Dutch Household Spending Falls

Household consumption in The Netherlands fell a working-day adjusted 0.6% annually in June, after a revised 1.6% drop in May, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics showed.

Swedish Surplus Declines

Sweden''s current account surplus declined to SEK 55.2 billion in the second quarter, from SEK 66.8 billion in the first quarter, Statistics Sweden said.

The surplus on trade in goods increased to SEK 24.5 billion in the second quarter from SEK 23.3 billion in the first quarter. The services surplus rose to SEK 37 billion in the second quarter from SEK 31.4 billion in the first quarter.