Portugal's PM, Pedro Passos Coelho said on Saturday that he relies on and totally believes the unemployment figures from the National Statistics Institute and that they are of course concerning but heading downwards.
Last Friday the debate in parliament centred on the figures and how they are fiddled, massaged and how tens of thousands are excluded by the figures by cunning governmental schemes and definitions.
"The debate showed what everyone thinks about this matter. The data that were used are from the National Statistics Institute and have been confirmed regularly by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union," explained Passos Coelho.
The PM was confronted with an audit request by the Left Bloc, which said that unemployment data is incorrectly reported and wants to see the Court of Auditors assess the collection methods as it believes the real figure to be above 18%.
Most governments are judged on unemployment data and many are tempted to fiddle with the figures to their own advantage.
The concern in Portugal is that so many of its citizens are unable to claim any sort of unemployment or other benefit, a situation that the government seems to delight in as it makes it look good.
The hidden unemployed are legion with the state keen not to have them appear on any statistic - at this it excels, to its shame. In October Eurostat reported that 318,000 Portuguese received unemployment benefit in August but more than 406,000 were no longer entitled to unemployment benefits.
Passos Coelho and his team of reformers are as adept at fiddling these figures as previous governments have been.
With over 300,000 leaving the country since the crisis started, Passos Coelho has got off lightly on this key economic indicator and his regime of smoke and mirrors will be judged at the next election.
