EC: AUTUMN ECONOMIC FORECAST
The European Commission’s autumn economic forecast indicates that GDP growth across the European Union will slow to 0.2% next year and the unemployment rate rise by 0.8%. However, EU consumer price inflation will fall from 3.9% to 2.4%. In 2010, GDP is expected to rise by 1.1%, although unemployment will continue to worsen due to improvements in labour productivity.
In Germany, Europe’s largest national economy, no growth is forecast for 2009, although the unemployment rate is expected to remain fairly stable and average earnings are expected to rise from 2.5% to 3.1% this year.
EUROSTAT: EUROZONE INFLATION RATE FALLS
According to a first estimate by the EU’s statistical office, Eurostat, the annual rate of monetary union consumer price inflation (MUICP) in the eurozone fell from 3.6% in September to 3.2% in October 2008. This will ease the way for the anticipated interest rate cut by the European Central Bank later this week.
RUSSIAN FEDERATION: According to the Russian central bank, the consumer price inflation rate is now slowing down. In September 2008, the annual rate was 15%, but during the first 20 days of October 2008, the daily increase was 0.031% compared with 0.052% during the same period last year. This has led the bank to predict that the annual rate will fall to 13% (+/- 0.5%) by the end of the year.