Unemployment in the Euro Zone has hit a record high, and there is still no sign of inflation:

The latest eurozone unemployment data, due at 10am BST, is expected to show the region’s jobless rate has risen to a new record high of 12.1% in March (from 12% last month).

Italy’s unemployment rate is also forecast to increase, showing the challenges facing its new government as it strives to drag the country back to growth.

And in Spain, new GDP data will doubtless confirm that the country’s economy contracted again in the first three months of 2013 (economists expect a fall of 0.5%).

………

Eurostat also reported this morning that inflation across the Eurozone has fallen to just 1.2% in April. That’s a sharp fall on March’s 1.7%, and a much smaller rise in the cost of living than analysts had expected.

That makes it more likely that the European Central Bank will bow to pressure and cut interest rates at its next monthly meeting on Thursday.

Austerity is not working.