German unemployment falls by 12,000
The headline unemployment rate of Europe's motor has fallen again.
With unemployment dropping by a seasonally adjusted 12,000 in March, that takes the overall rate of unemployment to 6.7 percent.
Analysts had been expecting to see 6.8 per cent unemployment reported this month.
Last month's estimate of unemployment has been revised lower, down from 6.8 per cent to 6.7 per cent, by the German Statistics Office.
Simultaneously the latest purchasing managers' index data from Markit shows that while still expanding, Germany's manufacturing sector is seeing a slower rate of growth.
Dropping from 54.8 to 53.7, manufacturing PMI was a little weaker than the 53.8 that economists had forecast for March. Any number above 50 implies that the sector is expanding.
#EURUSD heads towards $1.38 in wake of those German PMI & unemp figs – rallies petered out here y'day: pic.twitter.com/up1hDxfOVC
— Chris Beauchamp (@ChrisB_IG) April 1, 2014