Bonn Economy Growing, But Jobless Rate Still High

The gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 1.5 per cent from the first quarter and 1.2 per cent from the year-earlier quarter, after shrinking 0.5 per cent in the first quarter from the quarter before and only growing 0.2 per cent year-on-year.

Economics minister Guenter Rexrodt said full-year growth for 1996 could well be stronger than the government's previous forecast of 0.75 per cent.

The good news of the rebound was partly overshadowed by the more recent unemployment data, which showed continued weakness.

The number of jobless rose 14,000 to 3.939 million last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Federal Labour Office said.

 

The adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.3 per cent of the workforce.

Labour Office president Bernhard Jagoda said that September data should show a seasonal improvement over the month of August but the economic upturn was unlikely to have an immediate impact on unemployment.

Unemployment figures tend to be a late indicator and we know it won't be just a couple of weeks before we see an impact, Jagoda told reporters.