The Italian statistical office Istat released its unemployment data on Friday. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 11.7% in February from 11.6% in January. January's figure was revised up from 11.5%.

The number of unemployed people was 2.980 million in February, up 0.3% from the month before.

The youth unemployment rate decreased to 39.1 in February from 39.2% in January.

The employment rate fell to 56.4% in February from 56.6% in January.