The rate varied between 11.7% in the centre of the country and 18.5% in Lisbon at the end of last year, with disparities in unemployment rates between the various Portuguese regions increasing.
The Algarve lost the top spot to Lisbon and the centre of the country remains the region with the lowest rate of unemployment.
During the week following Easter the Troika suits will be back in Lisbon to complete their last official visit in the review of Portugal's 'Programme for Economic and Financial Assistance.'
Key topics scheduled for the 12th review of Portugal’s still struggling finances include the replacement of the ‘temporary’ cuts in salaries and pensions by more permanent tax raising measures.
Leaving no stone unturned, and with no hope of recourse for tens of thousands of debtors, Portugal's court system neatly has been bypassed by new legislation and in the last seven months €115 million of alleged debt to the state has been removed from citizens’ bank accounts.
With the new Civil Procedure Code coming into force last September claims against debtors have become swift and easy to execute with no need for the debtor actually to have his case looked at by a judge, and no opportunity for the alleged debtor to argue his case.
UK inflation fell to 1.6% in March, down from1.7% the previous month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It is the third month in a row where inflation has been below the Bank of England's 2% target rate, and the lowest rate since October 2009.
SARS virus, contained in thousands of vials, has gone missing from the high-security laboratory Pasteur Institute in France.
SARS is a contagious and severe respiratory illness first identified in China in November 2002. It killed 775 people and infected some 8,000 at the time, but there have been no known outbreaks since 2004.
The Chinese demand for gold looks set to continue to rise, according to the World Gold Council.
The agency believes demand will increase by some 20% over the coming few years, with private sector demand going to at least 1,350 tonnes by 2017.
As promised at the last Troika review, Portugal’s government is now full steam ahead in its effort to clamp down on undeclared rental income.
The Ministry of Finance said that 2014 is the year it is going to intensify inspections in the real estate rentals sector to combat the "many situations" of fiscal irregularity under its general clean up of fraud and the black economy.
House prices in the eurozone were reported by have declined by -1.4% in the final three months of 2013 compared with the same time in 2012.
Following a slight upturn in June 2011, prices in the region have been steadily falling since, Eurostat reported.
