“I am happy, just as all Portuguese people are, because we all want news to be good, especially as the world has complex economic problems and Europe may also have them," de Sousa said in a break from a debate in Porto on Portugal's demography.

Figures released by Eurostat on 31 August showed that Portugal’s unemployment rate in July was 6.8%, down from 8.9% a year earlier.

The unemployment rate in the euro zone in July, meanwhile, stood at 6.8% and in the European Union as a whole at 8.2%.

Asked whether he was concerned about warnings from the European Commission and the European Central Bank regarding personnel costs, the president said it was important to be alert.

“Of course there is always a permanent concern, which is for everything to go well, but if there are negative factors, namely external ones, we have to be alert to what comes from outside and poses a new challenge for us,” he said.