- Chris Williamson, Markit's chief economist
The Euro zone posted some mixed fundamentals, with the unemployment rate at multi-year low in January, while manufacturing activity in Germany, the Euro zone economy's backbone, continued to falter. The Euro zone's jobless rate dropped to 10.3% in January from 10.4% a month earlier, hitting the lowest level since August 2011. That reflected a 105,000 decrease in the number of people without jobs to 16.65 million. In Germany, the unemployment rate remained at its record low in February, as the number of unemployed people dropped 10,000 reaching total of 2,723 million in February. The jobless rate stood at 6.2% last month, but Germany saw a record influx of migrants last year and this data has so far not been reflected in the statistics. Meanwhile, the German manufacturing activity rose slightly in the reported month. The final PMI for Germany's industrial sector climbed to 50.5 in February, compared with January's 52.3. The Euro zone's manufacturing sector rose at the slowest pace in twelve months in February, with the corresponding gauge falling to 51.2, down from 52.3 in January.
In Italy, the Euro zone's third biggest economy, annual economic output rose at the fastest pace in five years. Italy's GDP grew 0.8% in 2015, compared with the revised –0.3% in 2014.
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