Unemployment rate in the euro zone rose to the highest point in more than two years in December 2008, according to official figures released on Friday.

As many as 12.472 million people were unemployed in the 15- nation zone in December, increasing by 230,000 or 8.0 percent, compared with November's 7.9 percent. This is the ninth consecutive monthly hike.

Compared with the same month in 2007, the number of the jobless was up 1.397 million in the euro area, according to the first estimate from the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat).

Among the member states, the lowest unemployment rate were recorded in the Netherlands (2.7 percent) and Austria (3.9 percent) and the highest in Spain (14.4 percent).

In the 27-nation European Union, the jobless rate edged up to 7.4 percent in December from November's 7.3 percent.

There were 17.911 million people unemployed in December in the EU, increasing by 309,000 compared with the previous month and by 1.665 million over the same month in 2007.

The European Commission predicted earlier this month that unemployment rate in the euro zone would rise to 10.2 percent in 2010, exceeding for the first time the 10-percent level recorded in 1998.

On the same day, the Eurostat said that inflation in the euro zone drastically fell in January to 1.1 percent from December's 1. 6 percent, approaching a 10-year low.