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Unemployment in the 17-country eurozone hit a record-high of 11.6% in September, official figures showed today, a sign the economy is deteriorating as governments struggle to get a grip on their three-year debt crisis. The rate reported by Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, was up from an upwardly-revised 11.5% in August. In total, 18.49 million people were out of work in the eurozone in September, up 146,000 on the previous month, the biggest increase in three months. While the eurozone’s unemployment rate has been rising steadily for the past year as the economy struggled with a financial crisis and government spending cuts, the US has seen its equivalent rate fall to 7.8%. The latest US figures are due this Friday.

UK PM asks for real terms decrease in EU budget

Britain would prefer to see a real terms decrease in the European Union’s budget, a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said today. Ideally, we would like to see a cut in the EU budget, but we do not decide the EU budget—that is decided by negotiation with the 27 EU countries, the spokesman told reporters. Cameron, who is currently demanding a real terms freeze in the 2014-2020 EU budget which would see it rise in line with inflation, has come under pressure at home to accept nothing less than a real terms cut in the budget. European leaders meet on November 22-23 to attempt to reach agreement on the budget.

OECD, WTO, UN press G20 for free

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