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Eni profit falls due to dip in oil prices

Q2 net profit fell by 18% to $637 million.

Emirates NBD H1 profit $3.40bn

Total income rose by 12 percent in the same period.

ADIB H1 pre-tax profit $1.08bn

Q2 pre-tax net profit increases by 14 percent.

AstraZeneca to invest $50bn in US

Bulk of funds to go into a Virginia manufacturing center.

UAB net profit up by 50% for H1

Total assets increase by 11 percent.

Eurozone’s unemployment drops to record low

The eurozone is likely to tip towards recession within weeks, according to the European Commission. (AFP)
  • Eurostat estimated that, for the entire 27-nation European Union, 12.95 million adults were unemployed in October
  • Younger people had the highest unemployment rate in the EU and its eurozone, at 15.1 percent and 15.0 percent respectively

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – Unemployment in the eurozone has dropped to a record low, at 6.5 percent in October, the EU’s Eurostat statistics office said Thursday.

The reading – the lowest since Eurostat started compiling jobless figures in April 1998 – was an indicator that the economies of the 19 EU nations using the euro had bounced back after the Covid pandemic.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was markedly less than the 7.3 percent recorded a year ago.

Eurostat estimated that, for the entire 27-nation European Union, 12.95 million adults were unemployed in October — or 6.0 percent of the active population — with 10.87 million of them in the eurozone.

While all OECD economies, with the exception of former EU member Britain, have recovered to their pre-pandemic size, global headwinds are stalling the recovery.

The eurozone is likely to tip towards recession within weeks, according to the European Commission.

Inflation is running hot, despite falling back in the latest reading on Wednesday, at 10 percent — above the European Central Bank’s two-percent target — largely because of high energy prices spurred by the fallout of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Business activity has been declining for five straight months, according to a PMI survey published by S&P Global, although the rate of decline slowed in November.

The ECB will pore over the latest indicators as it walks a tight rope between raising interest rates to combat inflation and the risk of tipping the economy into a deep recession.

An analysis note from ING bank said the unemployment data showed “the labor market remains resilient despite the slowing economy”.

It added that it expected the ECB to remain “on high alert in its fight against inflation”.

Younger people had the highest unemployment rate in the EU and its eurozone, at 15.1 percent and 15.0 percent respectively, according to Eurostat. That was an increase over a year ago.

In the eurozone’s biggest economy, Germany, the unemployment rate was 3.0 percent, down from 3.3 percent in October 2021.

In the second biggest, France, it was 7.1 percent, down from 7.6 percent a year earlier.

The Czech Republic, which is not in the eurozone, had the lowest unemployment rate in the EU, at 2.1 percent, while eurozone member Spain was the highest, with 12.5 percent.