Portugal unemployment rate shows country on track to recovery

Portugal's unemployment rate in June dropped to the lowest point at 11.2 percent since August 2009, the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics revealed on Thursday.

The unemployment figure dropped 0.9 percentage points in June compared to the same month in 2015.

"These figures comfort the government in its assessment that the economic recovery is on track in Portugal," said Minister of Foreign Affairs Augusto Santos Silva at a press conference after a cabinet meeting.

Santos Silva claimed that the country's deficit will not surpass the EU ceiling of 3 percent of GDP next year.

Portugal signed a 78 billion euro (about 87 billion U.S. dollars) bailout program in 2011 when it was on the verge of bankruptcy, and had to implement harsh austerity to meet deficit targets in the next three years. The country exited the bailout program in 2014.

The International Monetary Fund recently acknowledged the country's efforts, pointing to the country's unemployment being at pre-crisis levels, but said higher growth was still needed. The country is forecasting growth of 1.5 percent in 2016.

On Wednesday Portugal avoided a sanction by the European Commission for missing its deficit target last year, but gave the country a time frame by Oct. 15 to present new measures to curb its budget deficit to 2.5 percent this year. Endit