Inflation in the eurozone accelerated in November, continuing its slow increase prior a decisive European Central Bank (ECB) meeting next week. Consumer prices rose by 0.6 per cent from the previous year, after a 0.5 per cent increase in October. Core inflation remained at 0.8 per cent in November.

The ECB’s council wants to see a sustained increase in inflation and will discuss at next week’s meeting whether to extend a €1.7 trillion quantitative easing (QE) programme past its end date in March.

ECB president Mario Draghi recently told European Parliament lawmakers that the bond-buying programme is “sufficiently flexible” and could be “revisited to preserve the substantial degree of monetary accommodation necessary” to meet the central bank’s inflation objective.

In the meantime, data from the Federal Labour Office showed that German unemployment continued to tick down in November in line with expectations. The labour market in Germany, which is Europe’s largest economy, remained strong. The jobless rate in November fell to 5.7 per cent from 5.8 per cent in October, while the adjusted unemployment rate remained steady at six per cent, the lowest since the German reunification.

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, German unemployment fell by 5,000 in November after a 13,000 decline in the previous month. The decline in unemployment was in line with market expectations.

Finally, in the US, the Commerce Department said that the world’s largest economy grew more than initially estimated in the third quarter. According to a revised GDP report, the economy expand at a rate of 3.2 per cent on an annual basis, higher than the 2.9 per cent reported in the preliminary esti­mate. This was the highest quarterly growth rate in two years. In a se­parate report, US home prices rose by 5.5 per cent in the year to Sep­tember, meaning that house prices in the US have now fully recovered from the plunge they suffered during the 2008 financial crisis.

This report was compiled by Bank of Valletta plc.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.