Hopes of an breakthrough between Greece and its creditors before the Easter break are fading today. After three days of negotiations over reform plans, Greek officials are heading back from Brussels to Athens without a breakthrough. European Council president Donald Tusk has predicted that it could take until the end of April for Greece to satisfy its lenders that it has a credible economic program. Until then, the government must struggle on without bailout funding. Greek officials are remaining upbeat, telling us that sessions took place in a “very good climate”, adding: “Both sides agreed that the process of fact-finding currently underway in Athens should be intensified.” But without any new bailout funds, Athens faces a struggle to meet debt repayments including the €450m owed to the IMF on April 9th. Eurostat reports that unemployment across the euro area fell from 11.4% in January -- having revised up its previous estimate of 11.2%. Unemployment across the wider EU dipped to 9.8% in February 2015, down from 9.9% in January 2015 and from 10.5% in February 2014.
According to Eurostat, the number of people unemployed in the euro area fell by 49,000 meaning 18.204m were out of work. And, as usual, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Germany (4.8%) and Austria (5.3%), and the highest in Greece (26.0% in December 2014) and Spain (23.2%).
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