Greek unemployment drops to 24 per cent in December

[ATHENS] Greece's jobless rate dropped to 24 per cent in December from a downwardly revised 24.4 per cent in the previous month, statistics agency ELSTAT said on Thursday.

The number of unemployed reached 1.14 million people.

December's reading, based on seasonally adjusted data, was the lowest since May 2012 when unemployment stood at 24.0 per cent. The jobless rate hit a record high of 27.9 per cent in September 2013.

Unemployment has come down from record highs but remains more than double the euro zone's average of 10.3 per cent in January.

Greece's economy expanded slightly in the last three months of 2015 as national output grew 0.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter, driven by private consumption and investment. It shrank 0.3 per cent in the year as a whole.

REUTERS