MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lagos admits failure.

Chilean president Ricardo Lagos admitted in his new year's message that the worst failure of his administration in 2000 had been the increase in unemployment that reached 11% and now has stabilised in 9,4%. "This has been the worst impact in my administration's first year", said president Lagos who took office in March 2000 and has had to live with up to 600.000 Chileans with out a job. In his inaugural speech president Lagos had promised to create 200.000 new jobs during the year 2000, but actually ended loosing 15.000 compared to December '99. "It has been a tough year. Although the economy grew as expected, we didn't create sufficient jobs, but I'm convinced 2001 will be better", indicated president Lagos. Mr. Lagos ended his new year message promising that his main task will be to fight unemployment, make the Chilean keep growing, and ensure that this "growth reaches all Chilean families".