Euro Area Unemployment Rate at 10.3%

Euro area unemployment fell by a slender margin of 0.1% in January, compared to December last year, say the latest Eurostat figures.

This is the lowest rate of unemployment for the euro area that has been recorded since August 2011, and year on year there was a 1% improvement on unemployment when measured against January 2015.

Across the whole of the European Union (EU), the rate of those without work was 8.9% for January, which matched the month on month reduction of 0.1% in the euro area.

Despite the only slight fall, this was the most encouraging unemployment data in the EU since May 2009.

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate in January 2016 fell in twenty four member States.

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Germany on 4.3%, they were followed by the Czech Republic with 4.5% out of work.

Malta and the United Kingdom both had 5.1% who were jobless, although that was data from November for the UK

In contrast, the highest unemployment rates were observed in Greece 24.6%, in November last year, and Spain who are dealing with 20.5% of their labour market without a position.

Euro Continues Fall After Inflation Figures Release

The euro has suffered a persistent fall against the US dollar, since the -0.2% deflation estimate for February in the euro area was released yesterday.

This morning GMT, the euro began by buying in the region of $1.088, which has stayed constant for most day‘s trading.

Although the euro has now slipped to buying $1.087, in comparison to the UK pound the euro has also experienced a slide in fortunes.

Currently the euro is buying £0.779, falling only slightly so far today GMT from £0.782, but from yesterday morning, the euro has depreciated from climbing up to £0.788 on sterling.

The euro deterioration in the markets, stems from the expected policy announcements that will be made at the European Central Bank’s meeting in Frankfurt on March 10.

According to forex company World First analyst Jeremy Cook, its probable that recent inflation increases in the euro area, that has arrived from the courtesy of a weak euro has now began to fade.

Particularly, as the core prices of food and energy prices being the main influences behind the deflationary figures, falling by 3% and 2.6% respectively month on month.

Cook opined in his daily market update, that there was a similar situation in December, when ECB and market expectations dramatically differ on what was seen as effectual, and EUR/USD ran back above 1.10.

The market expectations of what policymakers will eventually do are centred on a further interest rate cut, which would take deposit rates further into negative territory, plus an additional 10-15 billion euros of asset purchases on a monthly basis.

Wholesale Trade in Germany Remains Unchanged

The German Federal Statistics Office have released the latest wholesale trade figures for the final quarter of last year, which revealed that the volume of trade had remained unchanged in real terms compared to the same time in 2014.

Whereas in nominal terms, the turnover of wholesale trade decreased by 0.8%.

In December last year, the turnover in wholesale trade was in real terms 2.7%, and in nominal terms 2.4% higher, than what was recorded for the corresponding month the previous year.

For the whole of 2015, the turnover in wholesale trade increased by 0.1% in real terms and decreased by 1.2% in nominal terms, in comparison to 2014.