Eurozone strains increase with grim new economic data
Eurozone strains increase with grim new economic data
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/06/eurozone-grim-economic-data
Strains within the European Union intensified following another round of damaging data that showed a jump in the Spanish unemployment rate and a rise in the interest rate that Italy pays on its debt to unsustainable levels.
Spain's jobless rate jumped to almost 23% in November, when the rate for the European Union rose to 10.3%. Italian bond yields, which act as a proxy for interest rates, reached 7.19% on further worries about the state of the economy and the government's ability to pay its bills.
The grim economic news, which included a fall in retail sales across the eurozone and a surprise drop in German industrial production, sent leaders scurrying to agree further measures to shore up the euro.
Italy's prime minister, Mario Monti, met the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in Paris to discuss a pact between eurozone countries due to be signed in March, giving Brussels oversight on debt levels and allowing it to punish countries that breach the rules.