Euro Area Unemployment Rate In January Stable At 12%; Inflation Estimate For February Stable At 0.8%

The unemployment rate for January in the euro area and the European Union held steady at the same rate since October 2013, data from Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, showed Friday.

The euro area’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate stood at 12 percent in January, stable since October 2013 while in the 28-nation EU, the unemployment rate was 10.8 percent, also stable since October 2013. In comparison, in January 2013, unemployment rate in the euro area was at 12 percent while it was 11 percent in the EU.

According to data from Eurostat, 26.231 million people in the EU, of whom 19.175 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in January 2014. In December 2013, the number of persons unemployed were fewer by 17,000 in both the EU and the euro area.

And, compared with January 2013, unemployment decreased by 449,000 in the EU28, and by 67,000 in the euro area.

Among member nations, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.9 percent), Germany (5 percent) and Luxembourg (6.1 percent), and the highest in Greece (28 percent in November 2013) and Spain (25.8 percent).

Meanwhile, an inflation estimate from Eurostat for February in the euro area expects it to remain stable at 0.8 percent -- the same level seen in January 2014.