BRUSSELS
Inflation in the Euro area slowed in November compared to the previous month, EU’s statistical body has disclosed.
The annual inflation rate in the Euro area – countries that have adopted the EU currency - is 0.3 percent in November, down from 0.4 percent in October, Eurostat said in a report released on Friday.
Eurostat also estimated that 24.4 million men and women in the European Union were unemployed in October.
The number increased by 42,000 in the 28-nation bloc and by 60,000 in the euro area compared to September.
The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Germany (4.9 percent) and Austria (5.1 percent), while the highest were recorded in Greece (25.9 percent in August) and Spain (24 percent).
'Lack of substance'
The report came a day after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker presented details of a €315bn investment plan to kick-start the European Union’s economy.
The plan centered on using €21 billion of reallocated funds to attract private investors, which has been attacked by politicians, economists and analysts for lacking substance and being unrealistic.
It also came a day after Juncker comfortably survived a no-confidence motion in the European Parliament on Thursday brought by critics angered over the "Lux Leaks" affair.
The "Lux Leaks" furor over Juncker and the European Commission erupted after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported that, under 548 private tax rulings known as “comfort letters” which were negotiated by accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of more than 340 multinational corporations, corporations were able to shave billions of dollars of their taxes by routing profits through Luxembourg.
Juncker, the new president of the European Commission. was Luxembourg’s prime minister at the time many of the country’s tax-avoidance rules were enacted.
www.aa.com.tr/en
