26,8% unemployment in Greece

According to data released today by Eurostat, Greece has the highest unemployment rate in the Eurozone at 26,8%.

For the first time Greece has surpassed Spain, which follows with 26,1%, while throughout the Eurozone unemployment remained at 11,7% in December.

The data released by Eurostat on unemployment in the Eurozone and the EU is for December, while the figures for Greece are updated for up to October.

Greece has the largest increase in unemployment in the last year (26,8% from 19,7%), followed by Cyprus (14,7% from 9,7%) and Spain (26,1% from 23,2%). The lowest rates were recorded in Austria (4,3%), Germany and Luxembourg (5,3%).

Unemployed young people of up to 25 years of age reach 57,6% against 23,4% on average in Europe. Second comes Spain (55,6%) and the lowest rates are recorded in Germany (8%), Austria (8,5%) and the Netherlands (10%).

Eurostat estimates that 25.926 million men and women in total in the EU (18.715 million in the Eurozone) were without work in December 2012. Compared with the corresponding period last year, unemployment increased in 12 Member States and decreased in 7.

Inflation reaches 2%

According to Eurostat, Eurozone inflation is expected to be around 2% in January, decreasing from 2.2% in December 2012.

The energy sector is expected to receive the largest increase in January (3,9% compared to 5.2% in December), followed by the categories of food, beverages and tobacco (3,2%, the same as in December), services (1.7% versus 1,8% in December) and non-energy industrial goods (0,8% compared to 1% in December).