The banking regulator predicts that the unemployment rate will decrease to 5.9% in 2022, to 5.7% in 2023 and to 5.6% in 2024, compared to 6.6% in 2021.

The forecasts for this year by the institution led by Mário Centeno are the most optimistic among the main national and international institutions, with the Ministry of Finance estimating a rate of 6.5%, the International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Cooperation and Development of 6.7% and the Public Finance Council of 6.4%.

"The recovery of the labour market has been faster than anticipated, which involved successive downward revisions of the projections for the unemployment rate throughout 2021", states the BdP.