Economic Indicators, Budget update

Unemployment rose to 2.67 million in the three months to January 2012, 148,000 higher than a year ago. However, the rate of increase has slowed recently with the 28,000 rise in the last quarter the smallest since the three months to May 2011. The number of people in employment was up very slightly in the recent quarter, but declined by 44,000 compared with a year ago. Meanwhile, CPI inflation fell from 3.6% in January to 3.4% in February.