Inflation slowed by 0.1 percentage points year-on-year in June in the eurozone. The unemployment rate in May remained stable at 6.4%, its lowest level in history.
Eurozone inflation fell slightly in June, slowing as expected to 2.5% over a year, after 2.6% in May, thanks to food and energy prices, according to figures published on Tuesday 2 July by Eurostat.
The rise in consumer prices is thus once again approaching the 2% target set by the European Central Bank (ECB). Analysts at Factset and Bloomberg had expected this decline of 0.1 points in June, which comes after an increase of 0.2 points the previous month.
Unemployment rate at its lowest
For its part, the unemployment rate in the eurozone remained stable in May, compared to April, at 6.4% of the active population, its lowest level in history, again according to Eurostat data. Over one year, the indicator is down 0.1 points. Despite a context of economic stagnation, it is at its lowest since the European statistical office began compiling this series in April 1998 for countries that have adopted the single currency.
For the European Union as a whole, the unemployment rate remained at 6% in April, stable over a month and a year. The employment market has generally held up well to the gloomy economic situation that has been affecting Europe since the end of 2022. Growth is suffering from the increase in interest rates decided by the European Central Bank (ECB) to calm inflation, which has soared in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
Unemployment had fallen sharply in Europe after mid-2021, thanks to the very strong economic recovery that followed the historic recession caused by the Covid-19 epidemic in 2020. The indicator has stabilised since spring 2023 at a level not seen in a quarter of a century. Some 13.2 million people were unemployed in May in the 27 EU Member States, including 11.08 million in the twenty countries sharing the single currency.
The unemployment rate stands at 7.4% in France, compared to 3.3% in Germany, according to harmonised Eurostat data. The lowest rates in the EU were recorded in the Czech Republic (2.7%) and Poland (3%). The highest were recorded in Spain (11.7%) and Greece (10.6%).
