European stock markets were mostly up on Wednesday with the Stoxx Europe 600 up 0.29%, the Swiss market index up 0.19%, France's CAC up 0.29%, Germany's DAX up 0.46% and London's FTSE up 0.03%. It ended.
The eurozone's annual inflation rate was estimated at 2.4% in March, according to preliminary figures from the European Union's statistics agency Eurostat. This was down from 2.6% in February 2023 and 6.9% in March. Services accounted for the highest annual percentage increase in March, followed by food, alcohol and tobacco prices, and non-energy industrial product prices.
Croatia and Estonia had the highest inflation rates in March at 4.9% and 4.1%, respectively, while Lithuania and Finland had the lowest inflation rates of 0.3% and 0.7%, respectively.
Eurostat also announced that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the euro area was 6.5% in February, unchanged from January and down from 6.6% in the same month last year. The EU unemployment rate in February was 6.0%, unchanged from the previous month and from the same month last year.
Spain and Greece had the highest unemployment rates in February at 11.5% and 11.0%, respectively, while the Czech Republic had the lowest at 2.6%.
Also in corporate news, financial services stocks rebounded on London's FTSE with Barclays and Standard Chartered rising 2.4% and 2.2% respectively, followed by NatWest and HSBC rising 2.1% and 1.6% respectively. On the DAX, Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank rose 4.5% and 1.9%, respectively, while in Paris, Société Générale rose 1.9%, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole rose 1.7% and 1.3%, respectively.
Aircraft maker Airbus delivered 142 planes in the first quarter, an increase of 12% from a year earlier, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing industry sources. Airbus representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MT Newswires.
