By PAUL HANNON
LONDON—The euro zone's unemployment rate rose to a near 15-year high in January, while the annual rate of inflation in the currency area also picked up.
Meanwhile, euro-zone manufacturing activity contracted again in February, dragged lower by weaker performances in the countries at the heart of the region's debt crisis.
This triple blow for the euro-zone economy underlines the difficulties policy makers face in restoring growth in the face of austerity programs designed to cut high levels of government debt.
The combination of more people without work and rising consumer prices eating into real incomes suggests consumer spending is likely to make only a modest contribution to growth in the months ahead, leaving the currency area heavily reliant on exports.
The European Union's official statistics agency Eurostat on Thursday said the unemployment rate rose to 10.7% from 10.6% in December. The latter figure was increased from 10.4%, as was the figure for November, as Eurostat received more detailed information from national surveys of the labor force. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to be unchanged at 10.4%.... read more.
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