Stable at 7.8% in February, the unemployment rate in the eurozone is approaching its pre-2008 financial crisis level, where it stood at 7.5% according to the European Statistical Office, Eurostat.
At the height of the debt crisis, unemployment reached a record high of 12.1% in April, May, and June 2013 in the eurozone. It has been declining ever since, dropping below the symbolic 10% threshold in September 2016.
Among the 19 countries that adopted the single currency, the lowest unemployment rates in February were recorded in Czechia (1.9%), Germany (3.1%), and the Netherlands (3.4%). Conversely, the highest rates were seen in Greece (18.0% in December 2018, the latest available figure), Spain (13.9%), and Italy (10.7%).
For comparison, in the United States, in February, the unemployment rate was 3.8%.
Falling Inflation
According to provisional data, the annual inflation rate reached 1.4% in March, a slight decrease from the 1.5% rate recorded the previous month. It is also moving away from the European Central Bank’s (ECB) target, which considers inflation just below 2.0% over a year as a sign of good economic health.
Of greater concern: core inflation, which consequently excludes particularly volatile products (excluding energy, food, alcohol, and tobacco prices), is limited to 1.0% in March—the lowest since April 2018—compared to 1.2% in February.
