BRUSSELS, May 3 (Reuters) - Euro zone unemployment rate
fell to 6.5% in March, the European Union's statistics office
Eurostat said, a decline that points to a further tightening of
the labour market an spells more trouble for the European
Central Bank in fighting inflation.
The March unemployment rate in the 20 countries using the
euro is lower than expected by economists polled by Reuters, who
forecast an rate unchanged from February at 6.6%.
Eurostat said the number of people without jobs fell to
11.01 million in March from 11.131 mln in February.
The tightest labour market was in Germany, where the jobless
rate fell to 2.8% of the workforce from 2.9% in February, which
is likely to have helped German trade unions negotiate
substantial pay rises.
The higher wages, however, in Germany and elsewhere, are
likely to make much harder the ECB's job of bringing down
inflation, which in April run at 7.0% year-on-year against the
bank's target of 2.0%.
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski)
Messaging: jan.strupczewski.reuters.com@reuters.net))
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