Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

Greek unemployment inched lower in October as the economy continued a tentative recovery that faces a potential challenge in elections later this month.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell to 25.8 percent from a revised 26 percent in September, the Athens-based Hellenic Statistical Authority said in an e-mailed statement today. The September unemployment rate was revised from a previous reading of 25.7 percent.

“Unemployment peaked already, and it’s now clear that there’s been a turning point since the second quarter of 2014,” said Nicholas Magginas, an economist at National Bank of Greece SA in Athens. “The key thing now is to see if the trend is continuing in the fourth quarter and the first quarter or if there’s stagnation.”

Greeks go to the polls on Jan. 25 for snap elections forced by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s failure last month to get enough lawmakers to back his pick to fill the country’s ceremonial presidency. While the country last year exited a six- year recession deepened by austerity measures tied to its bailout from the euro area and International Monetary Fund, unemployment remains more than three times higher than at the start of the slump.

That’s sent bond yields soaring as Greeks worn down by years of austerity are turning to the main opposition Syriza party, which says it wants to roll back budget cuts and write down some of Greece’s debt. Three polls yesterday show the party holds a lead of more than 3 percentage points over Samaras’s New Democracy party.

The October unemployment rate for Greeks aged 15 to 24 was 50.6 percent, while the overall female jobless rate stood at 29.2 percent. Unemployment was highest in the region of Macedonia-Thrace, where 27.8 percent of the workforce was without a job.