The pandemic's impact is still felt all over the world, economies barely showing signs of recovery even though the commercial activity has been resumed.
Today, Eurostat (European Statistical Office) released a report that showed an increase in the Eurozone #unemployment rate. For July, the rate came in at 7.9%, higher than the 7.7% reported in June. Although the numbers paint a gloomy picture of the 19 member countries’ economic state, they are still below the 11.8% reached during the sovereign debt crisis. Among young people (aged under 25), the unemployment rate reached 17.3%. Also, during these three months, female workers' jobless rate increased to 8.3%, while that of men rose to 7.6%.
For the past quarter, the Euro area has also been struggling with a steep economic recession caused by the #pandemic. At a quarterly level, the economy contracted by 12.1% - the worse contraction since 1995. The European Commission proposed an $898 billion plan to help the battered economies, but despite the good intentions, if approved, the funds won't be released until 2021. Currently, the European Central Bank is going on with its plan to buy government bonds to keep sovereign funding costs low.
EUR/USD is trading at 1.1995 – marking a two-year high. Europe50 reported a 0.66% decrease. Germany30 and France40 are trading 0.49% lower.
Sources: forexfactory.com, cnbc.com, finance.yahoo.com