Expensive energy drove euro zone producer prices higher in September while unemployment edged lower, data showed today.
Producer prices in the 12 countries using the euro rose 0.5 per cent in September against August, in line with economists' forecasts and giving a 4.4 per cent annual increase that was just above consensus estimates of a 4.3 per cent rise.
Without the energy component, however, prices at factory gates rose only 0.2 per cent month-on-month for a 1.3 per cent year-on-year gain, the European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, said.
The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged at 2 per cent yesterday but said it had discussed a rate rise, and some economists believe it will raise rates in December.
Eurostat data showed unemployment was shrinking slowly. It fell to 8.4 per cent in September from a downwardly revised 8.5 per cent in August, the lowest rate since October 2002.
The fall was thanks to a sharp drop in the unemployment rate in the euro zone's biggest economy, Germany, where it declined to 8.7 per cent from 9.5 per cent, according to provisional data calculated on the basis of Eurostat estimates.