EU Productivity Declines, Greek Jobless Rate at 24.4%

Arthi Gupta
06 Sep, 2012
New York City

The euro zone economy contracted in the second quarter. German factory orders rose more than estimated in July and record jobless rate in Greece in June. Riksbank unexpectedly lowered repo rate by 25 basis points.

[R]2:30 PM Frankfurt – The euro zone economy contracted in the second quarter. German factory orders rose more than estimated in July and record jobless rate in Greece in June. Riksbank unexpectedly lowered repo rate by 25 basis points.[/R]

EU Productivity Falls

EU productivity declines for fifth month running in August, survey results from Markit Economics showed.

The EU Productivity PMI rose modestly to 48.7 in August, little-changed from 48.6 in July. The latest reading signaled a fifth successive monthly deterioration in output per employee, the longest sequence in 40 months.

Any reading below 50 indicates a decline from the previous month, while a number above 50 indicates an increase.

Euro Zone Economy Contracts

The euro zone economy contracted in the second quarter, data released by statistics office Eurostat showed today.

Gross domestic product decreased 0.2% in the euro area and 0.1% in the EU27 during the second quarter compared with the previous quarter, according to second estimates released by Eurostat today.

In the first quarter, economic growth was zero in both regions.

Compared with the second quarter of 2011, seasonally adjusted GDP decreased 0.5% in the euro area and 0.3% in the EU27, after zero and 0.1% increase respectively in the previous quarter.

German Factory Orders Rise

Germany''s factory orders rose more than the estimated 0.5% in July, following a 1.6% drop in June, data from the Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology showed.

Domestic demand rose 1% and foreign orders climbed 0.1% in July.

Separately, the downturn in Germany’s construction sector continued in August, survey results from Markit Economics showed.

The seasonally adjusted Germany Construction Purchasing Managers'' Index - a single figure snapshot of overall activity in the construction economy, rose to a four-month high of 47.8 in August from 44.6 in July.

Greek Jobless Rate Climbs

Greece''s jobless rate rose to a new record in June, data released by the Hellenic Statistics Authority showed today.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 24.4% in June from 23.5% in May, revised up from 23.1%. In June 2011, the jobless rate was 17.2%.

There were about 1.22 million unemployed persons in Greece in June compared to the 858,076 recorded in June 2011.

Unemployment among youth, aged between 15 and 24, soared to 55% in June from 44.4% in the same month last year.

French Jobless Rate Up

French jobless rate increased marginally in the second quarter, data from the statistics office Insee showed today.

The average unemployment rate measured on the ILO method in metropolitan France was 10.2% in the second quarter, from 10% in the first quarter.

In metropolitan France, the number of persons out of work increased 52,000 to 2.785 million compared to a quarter ago.

Unemployment among youth aged from 15 to 24 years old rose in France to 22.7% in the second quarter from 22.4% in the first quarter, INSEE said.

Riksbank Lowers Rate

The Swedish central bank unexpectedly lowered the repo rate by 25 basis points to 1.25% to encourage more borrowing.

The bank projects inflation at 1.2% and the economic growth of 1.5% in 2012.

Dutch Inflation Steady

Annual consumer price inflation in the Netherlands remained unchanged at 2.3% in August, data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics showed today.

From a month ago, consumer prices rose 0.1% in August.