Italy's unemployment rate averaged 8 percent last year, the lowest level since at least 1993, suggesting that employment prospects had not been weighed down by a stagnant economy. Unemployment in the final quarter of 2004 remained unchanged from the third quarter at 8.0 percent, way below euro zone neighbours France and Germany and almost one percentage point under the zone's 8.9 percent average.
The news, posted by statistics agency ISTAT on Monday, was welcomed by a government keen to accentuate the positive amid economic stagnation which could dent its standing at local polls in April and a general election next year.
"All those prophets of doom that exist in this country will now absolutely have to keep this data in mind," said Fabrizio Cicchitto, an official at Forza Italia, the party of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
"When you think that in Germany there are five million out of work, it's the best proof that the Italian situation has significant positive aspects as well as the problems that Prime Minister Berlusconi has recognised."
While an upturn in economic growth in Germany and France is leaving Italy behind, both countries have serious problems with unemployment. France hit a five-year high of 10 percent in January; Germany's 12.6 percent was the highest since the 1930s.
Italy's jobless rate has fallen steadily since a seasonally adjusted peak of 11.4 percent in the second quarter of 1998.
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