Market Information Thursday 3 March 2022

Consumer prices in the eurozone rose sharply in February. This was shown Wednesday by preliminary figures from the European statistics office Eurostat. The inflation rate in February was 5.8%. In January it was 5.1%. Core inflation, an important measure for the ECB, was 2.7% in February compared to 2.3% in January.

The number of unemployed in Germany declined further in February. This was reported by the Federal Employment Agency on Wednesday. In February, the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed fell by 33,000, after a monthly decline of 48,000 in January. Economists had forecast a 20,000 decline. As a result, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 5.0% in February, down from 5.1% in January. A total of 2.42 million Germans were without a job in February. In January, the figure was 2.46 million.

The stocks of crude oil in the United States decreased last week. This was shown Wednesday by figures from the American energy agency EIA. In the week ending February 25, crude oil inventories decreased by 2.6 million barrels to 413.4 million. Gasoline stocks decreased by 0.5 million barrels to 246.0 million barrels. Fuel oil and diesel stocks decreased by 0.6 million barrels to 119.1 million. The refineries’ capacity utilisation rate was 87.7%, compared to 87.4% a week earlier.

The 6M Euribor decreased with 1 basis point to -0.50% compared to previous business day. The 10Y Swap increased with 6 basis points to 0.71% compared to previous business day.

In the attachment, today’s market data on money and capital market rates as well as other rates are presented.