Annual inflation in Eurozone dropped to 8.5% in January 2023. In December 2022 it was 9.2%. In November inflation in Eurozone was 10.1%. This means a drop for the second consecutive month, according to the flash estimate published by Eurostat.
Employment data indicates the unemployment level in Latvia was higher than average in the EU and Eurozone in December.
Eurostat reports that the biggest growth – when compared with January 2022 – was observed for energy prices (+17.2%), followed by an increase of 25.5% in December. Prices of food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products in Eurozone increased by 14.1% in January 2023 when compared with the same month of 2022, followed by 13.8% growth observed in December.
Prices of energy unrelated goods were 6.9% higher in January than they were in December. Service prices in 20 Eurozone countries were 4.2% higher than last year in January 2023. In December service prices experienced a 4.4% increase.
Eurostat data indicates that
in Latvia unemployment was 7.1% in December 2022, which is higher than the average in the European Union (6.1%) and Eurozone (6.6%).
In November 2022 unemployment in Latvia was at 7.2%. Unemployment was higher in Spain (13.1%), Greece (11.6%), Cyprus (7.7%) and Sweden (7.3%). In France the unemployment level was similar to Latvia’s. Unemployment was the lowest in the Czech Republic (2.3%), Poland and Germany (2.9% in both), as well as Malta (3.2%). In Estonia the unemployment level was 5.7% and in Lithuania it was 5.8%.
Eurostat reports that in December 2022 there were 13.148 million unemployed people in the EU and 11.048 million in Eurozone.
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