MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's unemployment drops below two digits

Unemployment in Argentina for the first time in thirteen years dropped below two digits to 8.7% in the last quarter of 2006 according to Senator and First Lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner currently visiting France.

Mrs. Kirchner made the announcement on Thursday during a speech to Argentine expatriates living in Paris, and apparently her source is not official but rather from private consultants in Buenos Aires. "We've experienced a strong improvement in social indexes which are the real objectives for which we work in politics", said the First Lady. "In the last quarter of last year we've broken through the two digits barrier and unemployment stands at 8.7%", underlined Cristina Kirchner. The last official data on unemployment is from the third quarter of 2006 when 10.2% of Argentina's economically active population was out of a job. However if the millions of people living from government subsidies are included the official figure soars to 12.1%. Two weeks ago President Nestor Kirchner had anticipated that the fourth quarter unemployment figure would be below the "stubborn" two digits. The official figure is expected to be released by the Statistics and Census Office in late February. Mrs. Kirchner completed Friday a week's trip to Paris where she signed the UN Convention declaring the forced disappearance of people a crime against humanity, an initiative originally sponsored by Argentina and France. The First Lady also met with French officials, intellectuals and the two leading candidates for France's presidential election, Socialist Segolene Royale (a woman) and Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, currently Interior Minister. She even had time to cheer Argentina's football victory over France at the monumental Stade de France, â€Ã‚¦and obviously plenty of shopping.