Official figures indicate that the unemployment rate in Portugal fell last year to 8.9 percent, the least since 2008, from 11.1 percent in 2016, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese state-run news agency, citing data collected by the Portuguese National Statistics Institute, says the jobless rate last year was well below the peak of 16.2 percent reached in 2013.

The report quotes Portuguese Finance Minister Mário Centeno as saying: “Great progress has been made in the Portuguese job market, and this is reflected in salaries, which have also grown at every level.”

The jobless rate among Portuguese between the ages of 15 and 24 years fell to 23.9 percent last year from 28 percent in 2016, Xinhua says.