GLOBAL ECONOMIC REPORTER

A quarterly report by 3 European research institutes (German Ifo institute, French INSEE institute, and Italian ISAE institute) finds that although the eurozone remains in recession, the economic contraction is expected to lessen in the coming months. Real GDP declined by 2.5% in Q1 of 2009 after a decline of 1.8% in Q4 of 2008, but real GDP is expected to fall by only 0.6% in Q2, and by 0.4% in Q3 and Q4 of 2009.

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported that the economy added 88,000 jobs in May with a total number of 40.05 million. It is still 0.4% lower than a year ago, however. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed workers edged lower in June to 3.41 million from 3.46 million in May. The unemployment rate was 8.1% in June, as compared to 8.2% in May. In West Germany, the June unemployment rate remained the same as the rate in May and stood at 6.9%. The unemployment rate in East Germany is significantly higher than in West Germany. In June, the unemployment rate in East Germany was 12.9%, a small improvement from 13.3% in May.