Portugal's jobless rate jumped to a record 14 percent at the end of last year, the national statistics agency reported Thursday in the latest grim evidence of the bailed-out country's worsening economic problems, AP reported. The unemployment rate is the highest since authorities began compiling comprehensive national registers in 1950, and experts predict it will rise further as austerity measures and recession sap the economy's strength. Debt-heavy Portugal last year followed other eurozone countries Greece and Ireland in taking a bailout. The ?78 billion ($101.4 billion) loan sought to avert looming bankruptcy after a decade of slender growth. The emergency funding, however, has brought only temporary relief, with austerity measures blamed for worsening the downturn. That has raised fears Portugal may need another loan and more time to pay off its debts, further unnerving investors worried about the economic prospects of the 17 countries using the euro currency. The Portuguese economy went into a double-dip recession last year. The government forecasts a further contraction of 3 percent this year when it reckons the recession will bottom out. Many analysts doubt that prediction, however. Tax hikes and pay cuts have crunched domestic consumption while exports are expected to dwindle amid a wider European downturn. Some 75 percent of Portuguese exports go to other European countries. The national association of bankruptcy lawyers has reported more than 10,000 company insolvencies last year - a startling 60 percent jump from the previous year. The government insists its recovery plans, including debt-reduction measures and long-delayed economic reforms, are on track and it won't need more financial aid. The jobless rate rose from 12.4 percent in the third quarter, the National Statistics Agency said, with the number of unemployed rising to around 771,000 at the end of December. That was up by more than 80,000 from the previous quarter. -- SPA
