Investing.com - The euro zone’s unemployment rate fell unexpectedly in April, easing concerns over the region’s growth prospects, official data showed on Tuesday.
In a report, Eurostat said that the euro zone’s unemployment rate ticked down to a seasonally adjusted 11.7% in April from 11.8% in March. Analysts had expected the jobless rate to hold steady at 11.8%.
The data showed that among the member states, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.9%), Germany (5.2%) and Luxembourg (6.1%), and the highest in Greece (26.5% in February 2014) and Spain (25.1%).
Following the release of the data, the euro turned higher against the U.S. dollar, with EUR/USD rising 0.04% to trade at 1.3603, compared to 1.3593 ahead of the data.
Meanwhile, European stock markets remained lower. The Euro Stoxx 50 fell 0.15%, France’s CAC 40 dipped 0.1%, Germany's DAX slumped 0.25%, while London’s FTSE 100 declined 0.4%.