The number of people out of work in Germany fell for a third month in February as companies became more upbeat on the recovery in Europe’s largest economy.

According to the Federal Labour Agency, the number of unemployed went down by a seasonally-adjusted 14,000 to 2.914 million, after falling by 28,000 in January. Economists polled in a survey by Bloomberg News had forecasted a decline of 10,000.

Meanwhile, the adjusted jobless rate was 6.8 per cent, a two-decade low, and unchanged from January.

In the meantime, consumer prices in the euro area grew more than initially estimated during January, thus easing the pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to loosen monetary policy further in next week’s meeting to combat falling inflation and underpin growth.

Data published by the EU’s statistics office, Eurostat, last week showed that consumer prices in the region rose 0.8 per cent year-on-year in January after a similar increase the previous month. This exceeds an initial estimate of 0.7 per cent. However, this January’s reading is the fourth consecutive consumer price index reading of less than one per cent. The ECB aims to keep inflation at just under two per cent.

Finally, the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, a closely-watched US housing survey, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.8 per cent in December, down from a 0.9 per cent rise in the previous month. For the 12 months to December, prices increased by 13.4 per cent, below the peak of 13.7 per cent in November.

This was the first decline in the rate of increase in house prices since June.

On other hand, in January, housing starts fell by 16 per cent. This was the biggest decline in almost three years, and home resales slid to a one-and-a-half year low during the same month.

Severely cold weather and continuous snowstorms this winter have been blamed in part for the weakness in the housing sector.

However, some analysts are of the view that higher borrowing costs have also weighed on the sector.

This article was compiled by Bank of Valletta for general information purposes only.