Latest news with #StatisticsOffice
Bloomberg
08-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
German Exports Fall More Than Expected as US Shipments Sink
German exports sank more than anticipated in May as the value of shipments to the US plunged to their lowest level in more than three years amid President Donald Trump's tariff threats. Total exports declined 1.4% from the previous month, the statistics office said Tuesday. That's worse than the -0.5% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey, and followed a revised 1.6% decline in April.
Reuters
07-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Both upside and downside risks for Swedish inflation, Riksbank's Breman says
STOCKHOLM, March 7 (Reuters) - There are upside and downside risks for inflation in Sweden and the central bank has to be watchful and ready to act if needed, Riksbank First Deputy Governor Anna Breman said on Friday after data this week showing an uptick in price pressures. "We need to be prepared to act and at the same time we need to remain calm and really look at the data that comes in ... on where inflation and the economy are heading," she said. Headline inflation picked up pace in February, flash figures from the Statistics Office showed on Thursday, the second month in a row in which inflation has surprised on the upside. Breman said that January inflation had been impacted by regular changes to the basket of goods sampled by the statistics office, while flash data for February contained no details on what was behind the unexpected pick up in price pressures. "What wasn't good, though, was that CPIF ex energy also rose more than expected (in February)," she said. CPIF ex energy is a measure of headline inflation excluding volatile energy prices. Nevertheless, Breman said there were still good prospects for inflation to stabilise around the central bank's 2% target, including the recent strengthening of the Swedish crown. "We have stable inflation expectations, we have moderate wage rises in Sweden, we have inflation that has ... clearly fallen back close to 2%, so the conditions for low and stable inflation are good, even in an uncertain world." The Riksbank announces its next policy decision on March 20. Analysts expect no change in rates.
Reuters
12-02-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Why Germany's refugees are fuelling election debate on economy
BERLIN, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Limiting Germany's refugee intake is a major issue in the campaign for the February 23 federal election, with the conservatives and far-right parties leading polls partly thanks to promises to halt the influx. At the same time, Europe's biggest economy needs more people to help plug labour shortages still posing a big obstacle to growth, and many experts say migration is crucial to sustaining the workforce and compensating for an ageing population. HOW HAS MIGRATION AFFECTED GERMANY'S POPULATION? Germany's net population rose by over 3.5 million between 2014 and 2024, driven entirely by migration. During this period, the number of German citizens fell by two million to 71.6 million. By contrast, the foreign population grew to 13.1 million from around 7.5 million, Statistics Office data showed. Since 2022, Germany has taken in over two million refugees. Of those, about 1.2 million are from war-torn Ukraine. Most of the others are from Syria, Turkey and Afghanistan, data from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) showed. MIGRANTS: BOON OR BURDEN TO THE ECONOMY AND LABOUR MARKET? Employment growth in Germany is now entirely reliant on foreign workers. A recent analysis by the Federal Labour Agency found that without migrants, Germany would have suffered a net loss of 209,000 jobs between September 2023 and September 2024. In the state of Bavaria, for example, the workforce hit a record 6.03 million last year, largely due to labour from abroad. At the same time, among the 4.01 million employable benefit recipients in June 2024, 47% were foreign nationals. Ukrainians and Syrians made up more than 1.2 million of recipients by October 2024. Over the past decade, federal government spending on jobless benefits has increased, rising significantly from 2020 and touching 29.7 billion euros ($30.8 billion) in 2024, the labour ministry said, citing a weaker economy and refugee arrivals. HAS GERMANY'S LABOUR MARKET BENEFITED FROM THE REFUGEE INFLUX IN THE PAST DECADE? Germany's hopes that refugees would address the skilled labour shortage have twice been dashed, first with mostly Syrian war refugees in 2015-16 and again with those from Ukraine in 2022, Wido Geis-Thoene of economic institute IW Cologne said. The unemployment rate among people from asylum-origin countries is also significantly higher than that of foreigners overall, according to the Federal Labour Agency. According to Germany's Institute for Employment Research, 54% of refugees who have been in the country for six years are employed. Of these, two-thirds work full-time, and 70% hold skilled jobs. For Ukrainian nationals, employment rose by 45% year-on-year as of October 2024, bringing their employment rate to 31.4%. WHAT MEASURES HAVE BEEN TAKEN TO IMPROVE REFUGEE EMPLOYMENT? The labour ministry introduced a programme in 2024 aimed at accelerating job placement. The target group is employable refugees from Ukraine and the main asylum-origin countries who have recently completed a German integration course and receive citizens' allowances. More than 600,000 additional counselling sessions took place last year through the programme. New regulations governing refugee employment took effect in February last year, allowing refugees in reception centres to work after six months instead of nine and pushing immigration authorities to grant work permits for refugees more quickly. WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHALLENGES FOR REFUGEES TO ENTER GERMANY'S LABOUR MARKET? Refugees face challenges including recognition of foreign qualifications, language barriers and difficulties related to trauma from conflict in their homelands. An uncertain residence status can further hinder job placement. Women, especially mothers, encounter additional obstacles as caregiving responsibilities limit the time for language learning and skill development. A 2024 OECD study showed that only 42% of immigrant mothers with young children were employed in Germany in 2019, compared with 73% of native-born mothers. If immigrants with foreign university degrees had the same access to high-skilled jobs as native-born workers, Germany would have over 600,000 more people in such roles, the OECD study showed. ($1 = 0.9639 euros)
The Hill
06-02-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Czech central bank cuts key interest rate to 3.75% as inflation stays higher than expected
PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic's central bank cut its key interest rate again Thursday with inflation higher than expected after keeping the rate unchanged at its previous policy meeting in December. The cut, which had been predicted by analysts, brought the interest rate down by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.75%. The bank started to trim borrowing costs by a quarter-point on Dec. 21, 2023 to boost the economy. Further cuts of half a percentage point followed last year on Feb. 8, March 20, May 2, and June 27. Cuts of a quarter of a percentage point came on Aug. 1, Sept. 25 and Nov 7. Inflation was at 2.8% year-on-year in January, the preliminary data by the Czech Statistics Office indicated on Thursday. It was down by 0.2%, compared with December but still higher than the rate of 2.6% predicted by analysts. The bank's target is 2%. The size of the Czech economy was 1.0% up in 2024 compared with the previous year, according to the Statistics Office. The European Central Bank, which sets interest rates for the 20 countries that use the euro currency, lowered its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.75% on Jan. 30. Eurozone countries are struggling to grow as consumers burned by inflation warily eye price tags and businesses try to navigate political turmoil in the zone's leading economies, France and Germany. The ECB cut came a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve held off on reducing rates, underlining the contrast between more robust growth in the U.S. economy and stagnation in Europe, which recorded zero growth at the end of last year.
The Independent
06-02-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Czech central bank cuts key interest rate to 3.75% as inflation stays higher than expected
The Czech Republic's central bank cut its key interest rate again Thursday with inflation higher than expected after keeping the rate unchanged at its previous policy meeting in December. The cut, which had been predicted by analysts, brought the interest rate down by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.75%. The bank started to trim borrowing costs by a quarter-point on Dec. 21, 2023 to boost the economy. Further cuts of half a percentage point followed last year on Feb. 8, March 20, May 2, and June 27. Cuts of a quarter of a percentage point came on Aug. 1, Sept. 25 and Nov 7. Inflation was at 2.8% year-on-year in January, the preliminary data by the Czech Statistics Office indicated on Thursday. It was down by 0.2%, compared with December but still higher than the rate of 2.6% predicted by analysts. The bank's target is 2%. The size of the Czech economy was 1.0% up in 2024 compared with the previous year, according to the Statistics Office. The European Central Bank, which sets interest rates for the 20 countries that use the euro currency, lowered its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.75% on Jan. 30. Eurozone countries are struggling to grow as consumers burned by inflation warily eye price tags and businesses try to navigate political turmoil in the zone's leading economies, France and Germany. The ECB cut came a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve held off on reducing rates, underlining the contrast between more robust growth in the U.S. economy and stagnation in Europe, which recorded zero growth at the end of last year.
