The specter of deflation in the Eurozone, which had been agitated for a long time, has become reality: according to the preliminary estimate made by Eurostat, in fact, in December consumer prices showed -0,2% on an annual basis, against +0,3 .2009% recorded in November. It is the first time that Eurozone inflation has been negative since XNUMX.
A red light that is starting to flash, therefore, and which could lead the European Central Bank to adopt new measures to encourage the recovery of prices and the achievement of the established objective, i.e. that of inflation close to, but below, 2% .
On the other hand, unemployment in the currency union remains stable, standing at 11,5% in November. According to Eurostat, the total number of unemployed has shown a slight increase (34 thousand units), thus reaching a total of 18 million 394 thousand.