Eurozone inflation and jobs improve but recovery remains fragile, experts warn

Inflation and unemployment in the Eurozone are gradually improving, but economists warn the currency bloc’s recovery is fragile.

 

Prices failed to fall – or rise – registering zero change in April compared with the same month last year, figures released yesterday by Eurostat reveal.

 

Inflation is now closer to the European Central Bank’s (ECB) target of just under two per cent. 

 

“Highly welcome news for the ECB as the Eurozone exited deflation in April as consumer prices were flat year-on-year,” said economist Howard Archer from analysts IHS.

 

Meanwhile, the Eurozone jobless rate was 11.3 per cent in March, according to figures published yesterday by Eurostat. It is unchanged compared with February and January, but is slightly below March 2014’s 11.7 per cent.

 

“Today’s unemployment data are somewhat disappointing – it’s bad enough that the headline rate for the euro area was stable, but rising unemployment in Italy suggests that even the fragile recovery in some economies must not be taken for granted,” said Tom Rogers, senior economic adviser to the EY Eurozone forecast.

 

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