"Despite the ECB embarking on a substantial round of easing, the fact that the Eurozone remains within deflation is a clear heads up that monetary policy alone cannot fix the problem of stagnant price growth".
- Joshua Mahony, IG
The jobless rate in the Euro zone remained at its lowest level since August 2011 in April, but was still higher than before the crisis. According to Eurostat, the unemployment rate in the 19-nation currency club was 10.2% in April, stable compared with March 2016, in line with market expectations and down from 11.0% in April 2015. This was the lowest rate recorded in the Euro zone since August 2011, when the currency bloc was mired in a debt crisis that raised questions over the future of the single currency bloc. The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Czech Republic - 4.1%, Germany - 4.2% and Malta - 4.3%, while the country with the highest unemployment rates was Greece - 24.2%, followed by Spain - 20.1%.
In addition, a separate report showed that the annual inflation rate in the Euro area remained in negative territory for the fourth consecutive month in May. Consumer prices in the 19-nation euro bloc trashed 0.1% on an annual and seasonally adjusted basis in the fifth month of the year, the highly anticipated headline CPI from Eurostat revealed, while market expectations had been for a 0.1% fall in May. Meanwhile, the core measure, which exclude alcohol, tobacco, food and energy, rose 0.8% on an annual and non-seasonally adjusted basis in May, in line with analysts expectations of an unchanged figure, after rising 0.7% in April.
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