EU jobless rate falls for 1st time in over 2 years

The European Union's unemployment rate fell in June for the first time in almost two-and-a-half years, a sign that a long deterioration in the bloc's jobs market may be coming to an end as the economy stabilizes.

The number of jobless people in the countries that use the euro also fell, albeit modestly, for the first time in two years.

Eurostat, the EU's official statistics agency, said Wednesday that 10.9% of the work force in the 27 nations that then formed the EU were unemployed in June, down from 11.0% in May. That is the first fall in the jobless rate since January 2011.

The number of unemployed in the 17 euro-zone countries edged down to 19.27 million from 19.29 million, the first decline--albeit a modest one--since April 2011. The fall wasn't sufficient to move the jobless rate overall, which held firm at 12.1%--its highest on record--for the fourth straight month.

Signs that unemployment may be peaking in the EU and the 17 nations that use the euro add to recent evidence from consumer and business surveys that the region's economy has stabilized in the middle of the year, and could gather some momentum in the months to come.

Economists say any recovery will be weak in the near term, and beset by uncertainty due to problems in the euro zone in particular. The currency bloc's governments are committed to growth-sapping austerity measures, and businesses are struggling to gain financing to invest due to a hobbled banking system.

The European Central Bank isn't expected to take action to support the economy at its meeting Thursday.

Eurostat said in a separate release Wednesday that the annual inflation rate in the euro zone was unchanged in July at 1.6%, beneath the ECB's target area of just below 2.0%.

MarketWatch

EU's top diplomat meets with detained Morsi in Egypt

The European Union's top diplomat said Tuesday after meeting with deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi that he is well, and that she urged all those she met with on the need to move forward peacefully following his ouster nearly a month ago.
It was Morsi's first contact with the outside world since he was toppled in a military coup on July 3.
Morsi's status has emerged as a source of contention between Egypt's interim leaders and the international community, with human rights groups insisting he either be charged or released.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also called for an inclusive political process going ahead and an end to the violence that has left the Arab world's most populous nation deeply divided between opponents and supporters of the ousted Islamist leader.
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FoxNews

Europe and China Agree to Settle Solar Panel Fight

The European Union’s trade chief said on Saturday that a deal had been reached with China to settle a dispute over exports of low-cost solar panels that had threatened to set off a wider trade war between two of the world’s largest economies.

The settlement essentially involves setting a fairly high minimum price for sales of Chinese-made solar panels in the European Union to try to prevent them from undercutting European producers.

Those producers accused Chinese manufacturers of benefiting from enormous loans from state-owned banks and other government assistance that enabled them to charge prices that would otherwise be uneconomical.

“We have found an amicable solution that will result in a new equilibrium on the European solar panel market at a sustainable price level,” Karel De Gucht, the European trade commissioner, said in a statement.

The deal immediately met with ferocious criticism from the European manufacturers that had filed the complaint, and it complicates a similar dispute between the United States and China.

On Saturday, officials at the European Commission said they could not give details of the deal, including the price that Chinese exporters would pay to sell their panels in Europe, until the arrangement had been formally approved by the commission. But a European Union official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been formally approved, said the two sides had agreed to a minimum price of 0.56 euros per watt (74 cents), which would base any potential surcharge on the amount of electricity generated by each imported panel. 

The European solar manufacturers who lobbied for tougher action against the Chinese exporters on Saturday promised to sue over the settlement. The agreement “is contrary in every respect to European law,” said Milan Nitzschke, the president of EU ProSun, an industry group. A minimum price of 0.55 to 0.57 euros was at the level of “the current dumping price for Chinese modules,” the group said in a statement. 

The arrangement would cover exports from 90 of about 140 Chinese exporters that were examined during the investigation, and that represent 60 percent of the panels sold in Europe, the government official said. Those 90 companies would no longer face tariffs that were put in place in June. Chinese exporters that did not agree to the terms will still face tariffs that are set to rise to 47.6 percent on Aug. 6 from the current level of 11.8 percent, the official said.

The Chinese government hoped from the start of the trade case with the European Union for a negotiated settlement instead of a legal battle. This deal comes as a relief, said He Weiwen, the co-director of the China-United States-European Union Study Center at the China Association of International Trade in Beijing.

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Link (New York Times)