Investing.com – Germany's unemployment rate fell to an all-time low in January, while the number of unemployed people fell for the fourth month in a row, official data showed on Tuesday.
In a report, Germany's Federal Statistics Office said the unemployment rate dipped to a seasonally adjusted 5.9% this month from 6.0% in December. Analysts expected the jobless rate to hold steady in January.
The number of unemployed people declined by a seasonally adjusted 26,000 from a month earlier, compared to forecasts for a drop of 5,000. Jobless claims fell by 20,000 in December.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.0710 following the release of the data, from around 1.0708 earlier, while EUR/GBP was at 0.8570 from approximately 0.8568 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were slightly higher in early trade. Germany's DAX eased up 0.3%, the EURO STOXX 50 rose 0.45%, France’s CAC 40 added 0.3%, while London’s FTSE 100 tacked on 0.3%.