Greece is showing a steady decline in its unemployment rate per quarter, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said in Milan yesterday (8.10), during a special jobs and growth summit in the European Union. He referred to Greece's improving economy and said that despite the high numbers of unemployment, "all forecasts - including that by the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday (7.10) - show that it will soon decline at a faster rate" in the country.

He talked about the national plan for encouraging entrepreneurship and start-ups, and programmes implemented by the private sector in retraining the unemployed.

The government has improved its collaboration with social partners to implement specific reforms, he added, and noted Greece's improved absorption of National Strategic Reference Framework funds, one programme of which nearly €600 million is currently earmarked for 145,000 unemployed. 

Another programme, "Youth Guarantee," is also under way, and part of the €170 million allocated to it has already been disbursed; this concerns 240,000 unemployed people up to 24 years of age. "The EU must achieve a greater leverage of funds through the European Investment Bank and other investment agencies," he concluded.

See also Eurozone Portal Growth and Jobs (30.06.2014)