Inflation in the euro zone remained steady for the third straight month in July, offering little comfort to consumers at a time when the number of people out of work continues to climb and the unemployment rate is at a record high. Joblessness in the eurozone hit on Tuesday its highest level since the single currency was born, a further sign of economic desperation as hopes erode that the bloc will be saved by its central bank this week.
An additional 123,000 people were out of work in the euro zone in June, figures from Eurostat showed, bringing the unemployment rate to a record high 11.2 percent across the 17 countries that use the single currency. The rate hides wide divergences, with unemployment as low as 4.5 percent in Austria and as high as 24.8 percent in Spain, where a shrinking economy makes it ever more difficult to pay off debt. Consumer prices in the 17 nations sharing the euro rose 2.4 percent in July on an annual basis, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Tuesday, maintaining a level first touched in May as Brent crude fell sharply and brought prices down.
The bloc's jobless rate hit 11.2 percent in June, Eurostat said in a separate report, with unemployment nearing 25 percent in Spain, the latest economy to become a flashpoint in the 2-1/2 year debt crisis that some worry could break up the euro zone. Even in Germany, the bloc's largest and strongest economy, the number of people out of work rose for a fourth month running in July and retail sales also fell in June.
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