The Eurozone unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent in September and consumer prices in the 16-nation area fell for a fifth month running in October, the European statistics office Eurostat said on Friday.

The jobless rate was up from 9.6 percent in August, while unemployment in the European Union as a whole also went up from 9.1 percent to 9.2 percent -- its highest level since comparable records began to be kept in 2000.

Eurostat said 22.123 million people in the EU were now out of work.

Consumer prices in the eurozone meanwhile fell 0.1 percent in October on a 12-month comparison, following drops of 0.1 percent in June, 0.7 percent in July, 0.2 percent in August and 0.3 percent in September, Eurostat said.

Last year's bout of inflation has given way to falling prices amid the worst recession in Europe since World War II. Economists expect deflation, which can wreak havoc in an economy, to be reversed over the next few months.