German Unemployment Unexpectedly Gains in Summer Lull

German unemployment unexpectedly rose in August for the first time in three months and inflation slowed in a sign that Europe’s biggest economy is cooling after a second-quarter surge.

The number of people out of work climbed by a seasonally adjusted 7,000 to 2.95 million, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said today. Economists predicted a decline by 5,000 in a Bloomberg News survey. The adjusted jobless rate stayed at 6.8 percent, near a two-decade low. Consumer prices, calculated using a harmonized European Union method, rose 1.6 percent from a year earlier, compared with 1.9 percent in July, the Federal Statistics Office said in Wiesbaden.