Luxembourg, Aug 31 (IANS/AKI) Italy’s unemployment rate fell to 8.4 percent in July as the country’s fragile economic recovery picked up steam, European statistics agency EUROSTAT said Tuesday.
The rate of unemployment in the 16 European countries that use euro currency was unchanged at 10 percent in July.
The ‘situation remains worrisome but it would be wrong not to recognise that it is better than the European average and that a negative trend has been reversed’, Italy’s labour minister Maurizio Sacconi said.
After shrinking 5.1 percent in 2009, the Italian economy expanded 0.4 percent in the first quarter of from the previous three months.
The Italian statistics agency ISTAT said Tuesday that it expected inflation to increase 0.2 percent in August compared with July. Prices rose 1.6 percent over the same period in 2009.
Using a uniform European Union way of measurement, Italy’s inflation rate rose 1.8 percent annually in August and nudged up 0.2 percent from July, according to ISTAT.
On a monthly basis, prices for communications – like telephone usage – led the price increases, advancing 1.2 percent. Annually, transportation’s 3.8 percent rise made it the most inflationary category.
August food prices rose 0.1 percent over the same period last year, ISTAT said.
‘The consumer price data confirms the persistence of the economic system’s state of recovery after the deep recession of 2008-2009,’ Italian business trade association Confcommercio said in a statement.
–IANS/AKI
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