Article Image

IPFS News Link • Economy - International

Euro-Zone 'Misery' Has Never Been Higher

• http://www.zerohedge.com, by Tyler Durden
 As SocGen notes today, the UK's misery has turned back higher and the Euro-zone's Misery Index has never been higher. These misery indices clearly reflect deteriorating economic performances in the main G10 countries, with some unsurprisingly weaker performances in Spain and Greece, leading the eurozone index higher. Given recessionary situations expected in some eurozone countries next year, the misery index is unfortunately quite unlikely to edge south significantly.

Via SocGen:

Eurozone: a record misery index. The situation in the eurozone deteriorated further during the summer: the unemployment rate hit a record 11.4% in August, while inflation increased from 2.4% yoy to 2.6% yoy, pushing the eurozone misery index to a record high (14%). With an unfortunately dark employment outlook, the index is unlikely to reverse course sharply anytime soon. This will force the ECB to keep an ultra-accommodative stance for some time to come.

US misery index: keep a close eye. The decrease (from 8.3% to 8.1%) in the unemployment rate in August was not enough to offset the increase (from 1.4% yoy to 1.7% yoy) in the inflation rate. As a result, the US misery index has increased slightly.


JonesPlantation