French unemployment fell unexpectedly at the end of last year to an 11-year low, official data showed on Thursday, offering President Emmanuel Macron a boost on the economic front, reports Reuters.
The unemployment rate fell to 8.1% in the final three months of last year from 8.5% in the third quarter, which was revised down from an initial reading of 8.6%, the INSEE statistics agency said.
The result brought the jobless rate to its lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2008. It far exceeded expectations for a rate of 8.5% on average in a Reuters poll of 11 economists, with none expecting anything lower than 8.4%.
The big drop will be a welcome development for Macron after weeks of strikes as trade unions put up fierce resistance to his planned overhaul of the state pension system.
“This is a clear success for France, and for the economic policy that we’ve been pursuing these last three years,” finance minister Bruno Le Maire told broadcaster BFM TV.
The fall in unemployment comes even though the economy contracted slightly in the final quarter, which economists mainly put down to the strikes hitting manufacturers’ supply chains.
Despite the weak finish to the year, the French economy last year outperformed other big euro zone economies like Germany because it has a smaller exposure to exports and thus the slowdown in global trade.