LISBON (AFP) - Portugal's Economy Minister Alvaro Barreto said he expected the nation's unemployment rate, which hit a six-year high during the third quarter, will start to fall in 2005.
"We had forecast that, after having stabilized during the last 10 or 11 months, there would be a small rise to close to seven percent in unemploymnet, which would then start falling again," he told reporters.
Unemployment reached 6.8 percent in the third quarter of 2004, its highest level since 1998, figures released Thursday by national statistics institute INE show.
Barreto said the rise in the number of unemployment was due in part to the end in July of the three-week Euro 2004 football finals which had created many temporary jobs.
The centre-right government budget for 2005 forecasts gross domestic product (GDP) will expand by 2.4 percent in 2005.
The Bank of Portugal estimates GDP will grow by 1.25 percent this year after contracting 1.3 percent in 2003, its worst performance in over a decade.
11/12/2004 - 18:45 GMT - AFP