MGI Weekly round-up | 4 August 2017

Stories MGI has been tracking this week:

  • Greece’s part-time employment share doubles in a decade
  • Italy gets financial support to protect Libya’s borders
  • Seine-Saint-Denis, the big winner of the Paris Olympics

And as always, we feature content from the MGI data and analysis platform, a summary of the week’s key statistical releases, and a look to the week ahead in data. In this newsletter, we use the MGI platform to compare Greece’s unemployment rate with that of other European Med countries.

Housekeeping announcement
The newsletter team will be taking a two-week break, with your regular weekly coverage returning with a bumper edition on August 25th. In the meantime, you can get your Med news & analysis fix by following us our @mgionline twitter account, which will remain active throughout the summer (these guys never rest!).
 
And now back to our stories for this week.

Greece’s part-time employment share doubles in a decade
The share of part-time employment in total employment increased significantly during the last decade in Greece.
 
Among EU countries, Greece and Slovakia were the countries with the highest growth in part-time employment as percentage of total employment during the period 2005-2015, Ekathimerini reports. For Greece, the indicator increased by 4.6% during this period (from 4.7% in 2005 to 9.3% in 2015). According to data released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority, 385,200 people (10.5% of total employment) had a part-time job in the first quarter of 2017. This represented an increase of 2.9% compared to the previous quarter and 9.6% compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
 
Interestingly, according to a recent National Bank of Greece bulletin, about 50% of the jobs created during the last three years were either part-time or involved time-specific contract work.
 
Italy gets financial support to protect Libya’s borders
In another attempt to deal with the flow of illegal immigrants crossing the Mediterranean, the
EU announced €46 million in funding to help Italy protect Libya’s borders. Italy intends to send navy vessels to Libyan waters next month to combat human trafficking but also take measures that would strengthen the North African country’s southern borders.
 
These will be added to existing EU measures - such as €90 million to improve the living conditions of migrants stranded in this country, supporting the UN-backed PM Fayez Seraj or training, and equipping his cost guard - to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants.

Seine-Saint-Denis, the big winner of the Paris Olympics
Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest of France’s mainland departments, is expected to benefit significantly from the 2024 Paris Olympics. Two projects are to be built there: the Olympic Village, which will be converted after the Olympics to provide more than 3,500 homes, and a new swimming center. Paris Olympic organizers said that their aim to support Seine-Saint-Denis helped their case with the International Olympic Committee, Reuters reports.
 
Three out of ten people leaving in this department are immigrants (mostly from Africa) and a similar share of the population are classed as living in poverty. Furthermore, the unemployment rate (18%) in and around its main towns is almost two times higher than the average national unemployment rate.
 
Paris will almost certainly be the host of the 2024 Olympic Games, after its only remaining rival agreed to wait for another four years.

Featured content from the MGI.online data and analysis portal
Unemployment rates and forecasts for Med countries can be retrieved by using the MGI platform (https://www.mgi.online/natstats-compare/) by selecting the countries of interest and the unemployment rate indicator.
 
In 2009, Greece’s unemployment rate was at a similar level to Italy and France, and several points lower than Spain. Cue the crisis, and by 2014 the rate had tripled, earning Greece the unwanted distinction of having the Eurozone’s highest unemployment rate.
 
Despite a gentle reduction since, Greece’s unemployment rate remains very higtoday at just over 23% in 2017 Q1.
 
Spain’s unemployment rate also increased significantly during the crisis. Up to 2012 Q2 Spain recorded a higher unemployment rate than Greece, but since then has enjoyed a rapid drop. In 2017 Q1 Spain’s unemployment rate stood at 17.2%, and expected to fall further in coming quarters.

The week in data
Highlights from national statistics releases tracked by MGI this week include:

 

Looking ahead
Next week, we will see new numbers for balance of trade, inflation rate and industrial production from several Med countries. MGI’s complete data release schedule can be found at https://www.mgi.online/release-calendar/.

Monday 7 August, 2017:

  • Palestinian Territories unemployment rate and employment for 2017Q2
  • Greece balance of trade for June
  • Israel business confidence and foreign exchange reserves for July
  • Tunisia inflation rate for July
  • France 3-month, 6-month and 12-month BTF auction
  • Turkey treasury cash balance for July

Tuesday 8 August, 2017:

  • France balance of trade, current account and budget balance for June
  • Turkey IPI and retail sales for June
  • Greece IPI for June
  • Albania CPI for July
  • Israel budget balance for July

Wednesday 9 August, 2017:

  • Italy IPI for June
  • Cyprus balance of trade for June
  • Greece harmonized and domestic inflation for July
  • Malta balance of trade for June

Thursday 10 August, 2017:

  • Egypt inflation rate and core inflation rate for July
  • Egypt IPI for June
  • France IPI for June
  • Slovenia IPI for June
  • Montenegro CPI for June
  • Greece unemployment rate for June
  • Italy balance of trade for June and 12-month BOT auction
  • Tunisia balance of trade for July and PPI for June

Friday 11 August, 2017:

  • France harmonized and domestic inflation for July, final estimate
  • France non-farm payroll employment for 2017Q2, flash estimate
  • Spain harmonized and domestic inflation for July, final estimate
  • Turkey current account for June
  • Italy harmonized and domestic inflation for July, final estimate
  • Italy 3-year, 7-year and 30-year BTP auction
  • Israel consumer confidence for July
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