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Portugal's unemployment rate rises to 13.7 pct in Q1 2015

Xinhua, May 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portugal's unemployment rate rose to 13.7 percent in the first quarter of 2015, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics.

According to the report, over 712,000 people were jobless in the three months through March, translating into around 14,000 more jobless people than the previous quarter.

The unemployment rate dropped 1.4 percentage points in homologous terms.

Portugal has been applying harsh austerity under a 78 billion euro bailout plan it signed in 2011 and completed last year.

The leader of the Socialist party, the country's main opposition party, said on Wednesday at a conference at Lisbon's Higher Institute of Economics and Management (ISEG) that the rise in unemployment reflected the need to break with austerity polices.

"It means it is urgent to turn over this page of austerity, to enable the economy to breathe and to grow again in a sustainable way, generating quality employment," Antonio Costa said.

The Portuguese center-right government, which faces elections later this year, last month raised its growth forecast to 1.6 percent for 2015. The Portuguese economy returned to positive growth in 2014, up 0.9 percent. Endit