France's jobless rate fell to 8.8 per cent in February, the lowest level since September 1990, the Labour Ministry said today.
The number of unemployed on the count fell 40,000, a 1.7 per cent month-on-month drop, allowing the index to breach 9.0 per cent for the first time in more than 10 years.
Healthy economic growth has helped France trim dole queues almost continuously since June 1997, when the Socialist-led coalition inherited a 12.6 per cent jobless rate.
Separately, data from statistics institute INSEE showed producer prices rose 0.2 per cent in February, following a drop of 0.5 per cent the previous month, taking the year-on-year rate of producer price increases to 3.4 per cent.
The increase was exactly in line with economists' forecasts.
Stripping out volatile fuel and agri-food prices, producer prices rose 0.1 per cent in February, giving a year-on-year increase of 2.5 per cent.