Unemployment in the euro area fell unexpectedly in October. According to the European statistical office Eurostat, unemployment reached 8.4 percent compared with an adjusted 8.5% in September. This percentage corresponded to what economists in general had expected, although it was still expected to increase. In fact, before September, unemployment was mentioned at 8.3 percent.

Unemployment in the euro area increased since March. October is the first month since the start of the coronacrisis in which unemployment is falling again.

A total of 13.8 million people were unemployed in the euro area, as Eurostat figures. For the European Union as a whole, the unemployment rate is 7.6 percent. This amounts to more than 16.2 million unemployed.

Furthermore, in the euro area, there were a small 2.6 million young people who were out of work, which represents an 18 percent youth unemployment rate. That was 17.9 percent a month earlier.

Industrial producer prices in the euro area increased by 0.4% on a monthly basis in October. This was announced by the European statistical office Eurostat.

The figure is higher than the 0.2 percent expected by economists in general. In september, the prices charged by manufacturers in the euro area for their products also increased by 0.4 percent. On an annual basis, producer prices in the euro area have fallen by 2 percent.

In the Netherlands, according to Eurostat, producer prices increased by 0.2% in October compared to the previous month.