Member Article

Jobless rate at its highest level since 1995

The euro had a weak start after the week-end, dragged down by some Official statistics released today (Monday). The currency fell 0.3% to $1.2631 in the morning caused of statistics showing rising job cuts and decreasing manufacturing output in the euro-zone.

May’s data shows that unemployment rate is at its highest level since records began in 1995, risen to 11.1% in May, up from 11.0% in April. The survey’s unemployment index tumbles to 46.7 in June (from 47.1 in May). Among the member states, the highest unemployment rates were recorded in Spain (24.6%) and Greece (21.9% in March 2012) the lowest in Austria (4.1%), the Netherlands (5.1%), Luxembourg (5.4%) and Germany (5.6%).

A further hit for the euro is the European manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), published by Markit a global financial information services company, held at 45.1 in June, an eleventh month below the 50 level which indicates economic contraction. As UK manufacturing PMI jumped from 45.9 in May to 48.9 in June, U.S. manufacturing PMI decreased to 49.7 in June (from 53.5 a month earlier) and figures a number, much lower than economists forecasted (52.0).

However, despite the declining manufacturing PMI data and the increasing jobless rate, European Stock Markets still showed healthy gains amid investor’s optimism about Europe steps to ease the debt crisis. Bonds Markets show even better gains with Spanish 10-year yields flat at 6.36% and Italian yields still low but unchanged at 5.81%.

Following the news, that Marcus Agius has quit his position of Chairman saying he was “truly sorry” after a “devastating blow” to the bank’s reputation the rallied by 3.41% to 168.40p

The European Stock Markets performed mostly green today. The FTSE finished the day up by 69.5 points (1.25%) at 5640 and Germans DAX performed similar finished at 6496 up by 80 points (1.25%).

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by James .