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Portugal's General Workers' Union says fall in unemployment "positive" but concerns remain

Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portugal's General Workers' Union said on Wednesday that the fall in unemployment figures in 2014 was "positive," but concerns regarding the country's poor economic growth remains.

"This decrease of unemployment is positive, but leaves us with some doubts given that the poor economic growth (1 percent) registered until the third quarter of the year is not enough for a significant drop in unemployment," the union said in a statement to Portuguese news agency Lusa.

According to figures released on Wednesday by Portugal's National Institute of Statistics (INE), the country's unemployment rate at the end of 2014 was 13.9 percent, after hitting 16.2 percent the previous year.

The union also pointed out that professional internships, financed by the government through the Institute for Employment and Professional Training, justified a lot of the employment created.

"This is a worrying situation, due to the the uncertain character of these measures, given that an end to these internships would mean that unemployment will rise again," the statement said.

Portugal had to seek financial help from the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank in 2011 and is trying to cut its budget deficit to 2.5 percent this year after a clean exit from the program in May last year. Enditem