Forex News

A deepening hole in Portugal’s labour market.

17/02/12 @ 09:09 GMT by Michael Derks, Chief Strategist

With the economy still in the midst of a terrible recession, it is no surprise that labour market conditions continue to worsen rapidly. In the final quarter of 2011, the unemployment rate jumped to 14.0%, up from 12.4% in Q3, and 11.1% a year earlier. The economy contracted sharply in Q4, by 1.4%, a decline of 2.7% in YoY terms. According to the European Commission, the economy will contract by a further 3% this year. Unfortunately, fiscal austerity comes at a huge price when attempting to rectify both heavily indebted balance sheets and a competitiveness problem simultaneously.

FxPro
Insights Team

Michael Derks

Chief Strategist

Simon Smith

Chief Economist

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