Europe stocks fall on global economic strains

European stock markets fell on Wednesday as investors reacted to a flood of global economic data that highlighted weak growth worries, traders said. London's benchmark FTSE 100 index dropped 1.22 percent to stand at 6,679.82 points in late morning trade. Frankfurt's DAX 30 shed 1.06 percent to 8,390.69 points and in Paris the CAC 40 decreased by 1.03 percent in value to 4,008.94. The Milan and Madrid stock exchanges each lost 0.45 percent. "Economic data out of the eurozone... hasn't helped sentiment, with German unemployment rising," said Craig Erlam, a market analyst at traders Alpari. "Sentiment has also been hit this morning by news of lowered growth revisions from both the IMF and the OECD." The International Monetary Fund cut its 2013 growth forecast for China to "around 7.75 percent", a top official said Wednesday, citing a sluggish global recovery which hurt exports. The organisation had previously predicted growth of 8.0 percent in the world's second-biggest economy this year. China is seen as a potential driver of global recovery in the face of the eurozone's ongoing debt crisis and unsteady growth elsewhere. Elsewhere, the OECD slashed its growth forecast for the world's most advanced economies, except Japan, but said growth should pick up later this year. In Europe, unemployment in Germany increased in seasonally adjusted terms in May, but the country's labour market is continuing to hold up relatively well to the eurozone debt crisis, official data showed on Wednesday. On the face of it, headline unemployment fell this month, but that was due to seasonal factors, monthly data compiled by the Federal Labour Office showed. The raw or unadjusted jobless total fell by 83,360 to 2.937 million and the jobless rate -- which measures the number of unemployed as a proportion of the working population as a whole -- fell to 6.8 percent in May from 7.1 percent in April. In foreign exchange trading, the euro rose to $1.2890 from $1.2855 late in New York on Tuesday. The dollar fell to 101.74 yen from 102.32 yen on Tuesday. On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold climbed to $1,385.02 an ounce from $1,376.50 on Tuesday. European stock markets closed markedly higher on Tuesday, boosted by better-than-expected US data and what market watchers interpreted as indications of continued central bank support. Figures out Wednesday revealed that bank lending to the private sector in the eurozone contracted again in April as the region's long-running debt crisis continues to choke demand for credit. Eurozone bank loans to the private sector declined by 0.9 percent in April compared with the same month in 2012 after already shrinking by 0.7 percent the previous month, the European Central Bank said in a statement.