Portugal’s unemployment rate dropped to 11.8 percent in December 2015, the European nation’s statistics bureau announced this week.

According to Statistics Portugal, the unemployment rate had been 12.4 percent in November 2015. Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua added that December’s reading was the lowest since May 2014, when the country exited a financial bailout programme organised by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

Official provisional estimates revealed by Statistics Portugal showed the country had in December an unemployed population of 604,000 people, down by 3.6 percent from the previous month.

“The youth unemployment rate stood at 31 percent, having decreased by 1.1 percentage points from the previous month,” the statistics bureau added in a statement.