BackThe Greek unemployment and inflation rates fell in December and January respectively.
Unemployment in Greece fell to 11.6% of the workforce in December 2022 from 12.9% in December 2021. This figure remained unchanged from November 2022, the Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Wednesday.
More specifically, the number of unemployed people totaled 545,372, down 9.5% from December 2021 and up 1.1% from November 2022. The unemployment rate among women was 15.6% (17% in December 2021) and among men it fell to 8.3% from 9.6%, respectively.
The unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group eased to 28.9% from 29.7% in December 2021 and in the 25-74 age group it fell to 10.7% from 12.1%. The number of employed people was 4,150,724, up 1.9% from December 2021 and up 0.8% from November 2022.
Meanwhile, Greek annual inflation rate is projected to slow to 7.2% in January from 7.6% in December 2022, with the inflation rate in the Eurozone projected to fall to 8.5% from 9.2%, over the same months respectively, Eurostat said in its flat estimate report.
The report said that energy will continue having the highest annual growth rate (17.2% in January – 25.5% in December 2022), followed by food/alcohol/tobacco (14.1% – 13.8%), non-energy industrial goods (6.9% – 6.4%) and services (4.2% – 4.4%).
Latvia (21.6%), Estonia (18.8%) and Lithuania (18.4%) recorded the highest inflation rates, while Luxembourg (5.8%), Malta (6.7%) and Cyprus (6.8%) the lowest rates.
At the same time, Greek economic sentiment index rose to 104.9 points in January from 103.5 in December to its highest reading in the last 10 months, the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) said on Wednesday.
IOBE attributed this development to an improvement of expectations in the industrial sector and to a lesser extent in constructions and retail commerce, while consumer confidence improved.
Inflationary pressures “are gradually de-escalating in comparison with last year, as energy prices did not create as big as a problem as initially feared, thus reducing pessimism. However, despite this slowdown, the inflation remains at very high levels, especially in crucial categories such as food, and pressures continued on households and the market.”
IOBE stressed that uncertainties remained as long as the war in Ukraine continued accumulating imbalances on the European economy. Additionally, the pre-election period could improve expectations over the course of the economy and the future position of households and enterprises.
More specifically, expectations in the manufacturing sector showed a slight change in new orders and demand, which positive forecasts over production in the next few months strengthened significantly.
In the construction sector, negative expectations over production rose moderately, while positive forecasts over employment improved slightly.
In the retail commerce, expectations over current sales improved significantly, while expectations over short-term sales eased slightly. In the services sector, positive estimates over the current condition of enterprises eased markedly, along with those over demand.
In consumer confidence, negative estimates over the country’s finances fell markedly, along with estimates over households’ finances.
