In a rare foray into looking at economic measures, here is some more good news for a Friday. Not only do a we have strong housing growth in the UK which is helping prime the recovery, but also even in the sickly Eurozone the two key measures are turning positive.
Firstly, unemployment has fallen by 61,000 - the first time it has fallen since January 2011. That is a long wait, it may yet be a blip, but it should be a good sign that economies are stabilising.
Secondly, inflation has risen from 0.7% to 0.9%. There was a big chance that the Eurozone was headed towards outright deflation - a total disaster for Greece and periphery countries laden with debt.
Even a small rise and trend change is a good thing, if sustained, then growing inflation and falling employment will mean a better year next year. Of course the fundamental issues with the Eurozone have not really been addressed and the whole Euro area will be at risk for years to come with instability at its core, but at least in the short term there maybe respite from a long crisis.
