[size=75:he8bufns]novinite 8 January 2010

Euro-Zone Jobless Rate Hits Double Digits

The unemployment rate in the euro area touched double digits in November for the first time since the introduction of the single currency more than a decade ago.

Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, said on Friday that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the 16 euro countries rose to 10 percent in November from 9.9 percent in October and 8 percent in November 2008.

For the euro area, the rate was the highest rate since 1998, a year before the euro was introduced.

In a separate development Eurostat announced that the euro-zone economy grew by 0.4 % in the third quarter from the previous period, driven by a strong performance in Germany.

Euro area GDP increased by 0.4% and EU27 GDP by 0.3% during the third quarter of 2009, compared with the previous quarter, according to second estimates from Eurostat.

In the second quarter of 2009, growth rates were -0.1% in the euro area and -0.3% in the EU27.

In comparison with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP declined in the third quarter of 2009 by 4.0% in the euro area and by 4.3% in the EU27, after -4.8% and -5.0% respectively in the previous quarter.

In the third quarter of 2009, among Member States for which seasonally adjusted GDP data are available, Lithuania (6.1%) recorded the highest growth rate compared with the previous quarter, followed by Luxembourg (4.2%) and Slovakia (1.6%).