Often quoted almost as a law of economics, is surely hard to come by . As our illustration shows, none of the nine member nations of the Eur opean Economic Community (EEC) nor other western industrial countries, can provide conclusive substantiation. Countries such as Ireland or the United States (Inflation in 1973: 6.2%, with unemployement figures for the same period at 4.9%) suffer from high structural unemployment, whi ch doesn't react substantially to price movements. The Federal Republic of Germany does constitute a singular exception to this uncertainty. T he inflation rate here dropped to 6.9% in annual terms during the month of August 1974. The unemployment figure for the same period, however, rose to 2.3%. Economic specialitists are inclined to attribute these em ployment figures to lulls in contracts and sales in the construction an d automobile manufacturing sectors, as well as general restraint in lau nching new investments.

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