Portuguese unemployment below 8 pct for first time since 2004
Xinhua,March 01, 2018 Adjust font size:
LISBON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese unemployment has been estimated at 7.9 percent for January, the first time the figure has fallen below 8 percent since July 2004, the National Statistics Institute (INE) announced on Wednesday.
The INE simultaneously issued a revised reading for December 2017 of 8 percent. This was 0.2 percentage points up on the original estimate, but 0.1 percentage points lower than November's score.
By way of annual comparison, in December 2016 unemployment came in at 10.2 percent.
The INE also announced that its flash estimate of 2.7 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth for Portugal in 2017 had proved correct.
Thus it was confirmed that Portugal's GDP growth in 2017 was at its highest level since 2000.
Marking a hat-trick of positive data releases, the INE also announced that investment in Portugal grew by 8.4 percent in 2017, a highest score since 1998.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who was visiting the Lisbon Travel Market (BLT) trade fair, greeted the news with enthusiasm.
"Falling unemployment depends on economic growth," he told the Lusa Portuguese News Agency. "It's therefore essential that we continue with the good policies that brought the good results. These good results didn't just happen by chance." Enditem