Unemployment in the euro area continues to rise. On today’s figures (which are seasonally adjusted) another 60,000 wasted lives and wasted opportunities for wealth creation in the euro area in September, compared with the previous month, and one million more than a year ago.
Meanwhile inflation has fallen again, to a paltry 0.7%! Core inflation (stripping out energy, food and tobacco) is almost as low (0.8%).
It is great that Eurostat publishes these data on the same day every month. Every month they are essentially waving a huge red flag at policymakers, and especially the ECB, saying LOOSEN POLICY NOW! Over the last two years the unemployment rate and core inflation have moved as follows (with UR on the left-hand, CI on the right-hand axis and the dotted line the ECB’s price stability target):