House Prices Fall In Euro Area

House prices in the euro area fell by 0.3% as measured by the House Price Index (HPI) and increased by 1% in the EU during the first quarter of 2014 compared with the same period last year. When compared with the fourth quarter of 2013 the HPI fell by 0.3% in the euro area and rose by 0.2% in the EU according to Eurostat.

The biggest annual falls in house prices according to the HPI were in Croatia with -9.7%, Slovenia -6.6% and Cyprus -5.7%. The biggest increases were in Estonia with 17.5% and Latvia with 10.4%. The UK was next with an increase of 8%. The biggest falls over the quarter were in Croatia with -2.7%, Luxembourg with -2.3% and Slovenia -1.7%. THe highest increases were in Estonia with an increase of 4.8%, Sweden with an increase of 2.4% and the UK with an increase of 2.2%.

Industrial Prices Fall In December But Increase Over The Year

The industrial producer price index published by Eurostat fell by 0.2% in both the euro area and the EU27 in December compared with November 2012. The index increased 2.1% in the euro area and 1.9% in the EU27 using the annual comparison for December. The average industrial producer price index for the whole of 2012 compared with 2011 increased by 2.6% in the euro area and 2.7% in the EU27.

Total industry prices excluding energy were stable in both zones in December. Capital goods and intermediate goods remained stable. Durable consumer goods decreased by 0.1% in both zones and non-durable goods increased by 0.1% in both zones.

Prices fell in most Member States for which data was available except Belgium and Sweden (+1.2%) and Finland (+0.2%). Bulgaria, Denmark, Cyprus and Austria recorded the largest decreases over the month. Over the year, total industry prices, excluding energy, increased by 1.6% in both zones.

Poverty And Social Exclusion In Europe

Eurostat has released details of a new publication 'Income and living conditions in Europe' issued in connection with the closing conference of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion due to take place 16-17 December 2010. It is based on data from the EU-SILC survey.

One of the key targets of the Europe 2020 strategy is to lift at least 20m people in the EU27 out of the risk of poverty or social exclusion. Progress towards this is measured using a combination of three measures: persons at risk of poverty; severely materially deprived persons and persons living in households with very low work intensity. In 2008 nearly 116m people in the EU27 were affected by at least one of the three criteria of social exclusion and nearly 7m fall under all three criteria.

In the EU27 16.5% of the population, a total of 81m people, were at risk of poverty after social transfers. The country with the highest percentage of the total population in this category was Latvia (25.6%), the lowest percentage was in the Czech Republic (9%). In the UK 18.8% of the population or 11.4m people fell into this category.

Bulgaria (41.2%) had the highest percentage of severely materially deprived persons and lowest percentage was in Luxembourg (0.7%). In the EU27 8.5% of the population or 41.5m people fell into this category. The UK figure was 4.5% or 2.7m people.

Ireland (13.6%) had the highest percentage of people living in households with very low work intensity. The lowest percentage was in Cyprus (4.1%). In the UK 4.8m people, 10.2% of the population, were in this category. The EU27 percentage was 9%. The total number of people in this category in the EU27 was 34.2m.