“Portugal, throughout 2016, recorded one of the biggest drops in unemployment in Europe, by two percentage points, with the rate at around ten percent. We will lower that to below two figures. If we do that we will have to apologise to the secretary-general [of the OECD Angel] Gurría: the report does not project that will happen,” said Mário Centeno.
Centeno was referring to the OECD report (see page 4) on the Portuguese economy published on Friday in which the organisation said that, given the “low growth” along with a higher minimum wage and the continued rigidity of the labour market, the fall in unemployment will be “much slower than in the last two years,” and that “it is likely that unemployment will remain at two figures, among the highest rates in the European Union.”
The OECD recognised that unemployment in Portugal has fallen, and warned that it remains at “uncomfortably high levels,” at 10.5 percent, and 26.1 percent among young people.