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Portugal's unemployment rate rises slightly in February

Xinhua, April 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

Portugal's unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points in February from the previous month, to 12.3 percent, according to a statement released by the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE) on Friday.

Around 622,200 people were unemployed in February, according to the statement, 5,500 more people than that in January this year.

Thousands of people have been left jobless in Portugal and had their salaries drastically cut amid a financial crisis that forced Portugal to ask for a 78 billion-euros (89 billion U.S. dollars) bailout in 2011, leading to continuous protests around the country.

Portugal exited the bailout from the troika of European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank in May 2014 after the three-year implementation of austerity measures which led the country to a slow recovery.

However, the new Portuguese government which took office in November last year is reversing the austerity while promising to respect EU rules and the country's unemployment still remains high in recent years. Endit