Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a newspaper interview released on Saturday she expected Germany's unemployment rate had fallen in July. "In June we had the strongest month-on-month decline in 16 years, in July I anticipate a continuation of the positive development," Merkel told Bild am Sonntag in an advanced release of an interview to run on Sunday.
Federal Labour Office deputy head Heinrich Alt also said he expected unemployment to fall further. The Labour Office is due to release official German jobless numbers for July on Tuesday. "I expect that unemployment will decline further in the coming months," Alt told Focus magazine in an interview.
The median forecast in a Reuters poll of 41 economists showed unemployment likely fell by 30,000 in July in seasonally adjusted terms, after a fall of 49,000 in June. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is expected to fall to 10.8 percent from 10.9 percent in June.
High unemployment has dampened domestic economic activity in Germany and Merkel's government has accorded top priority to the issue. The ruling coalition has seen its popularity wane recently as it struggles to agree on economic reforms.