Euro Area Jobless Rate at 11.7%, UK Confidence Soars

Arthi Gupta
30 Nov, 2012
New York City

The euro area jobless rate rose and German retail sales fell in October. Annual inflation in the euro zone eased and UK consumer sentiment soared to an 18-month high in November. Osram plans to reduce 4,700 jobs by 2014.

[R]1:20 PM Frankfurt – The euro area jobless rate rose and German retail sales fell in October. Annual inflation in the euro zone eased and UK consumer sentiment soared to an 18-month high in November. Osram plans to reduce 4,700 jobs by 2014.[/R]

European markets advanced for the second day in a row and U.S. lawmakers sent conflicting signals about the budget negotiations. Separately, the German parliament approved the release of next tranche of bailout funds for Greece, removing one hurdle.

In Paris trading, the rose 14.48 or 0.4% to 3,583.13 and in Frankfurt the DAX Index edged higher 31.24 or 0.4% to 7,432.21.

For the week, the CAC-40 Index gained 1.5% and the DAX Index advanced 1.7%.

The yields on Spain’s benchmark were at 5.34%. Italian 10-year yields declined three basis points to 4.56%.

Euro Zone Inflation Slows, Unemployment Up

Euro zone''s annual inflation, as measured by the harmonized index of consumer prices eased to 2.2% in November compared to the 2.5% rise in October, a flash report from Eurostat showed today.

Energy prices rose 5.8% annually, while costs of food, alcohol and tobacco rose 3% in November.

Separately, the euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate rose to 11.7% in October from 11.6% in September, data published by Eurostat showed today.

In the wider region of EU27 unemployment rate was 10.7% in October 2012, up from 10.6% in September.

In both zones, rates have risen markedly compared with October 2011, when they were 10.4% and 9.9% respectively.

Compared with September, the number of persons unemployed increased by 204,000 in the EU27 and by 173,000 in the euro area. Compared with October 2011, unemployment rose by 2.160 million in the EU27 and by 2.174 million in the euro area.

The highest unemployment rate was recorded in Spain at 26.2%.

German Retail Sales Decline

Retail sales in Germany declined more than estimated in October, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed today.

Retail sales fell 2.8% month-on-month on a calendar and seasonally adjusted basis in October after a 0.5% gain in September. Annually, sales dropped 0.8% in October.

UK Consumer Sentiment Improves

UK consumer sentiment surged to an 18-month high in November, according to survey results released by the GfK NOP firm.

The GfK index rose to -22 in November from -30 in October.

French Consumer Spending Falls

French consumer spending dropped 0.2% on a monthly basis in October, following a flat reading in September, data released by the statistics office INSEE showed.

From a year ago, spending fell 0.5% in October.

Osram Plans to Slash Jobs

OSRAM AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Siemens AG plans to reduce an additional 4,700 jobs by 2014 through plant sales which will result in cumulative gross savings of about €1 billion by 2015. The total costs in the period until 2014 amount to a mid-three digit million figure.

This is in addition to 1,900 jobs that have already been reduced worldwide in fiscal 2012, of which 300 were in German locations.