The government has welcomed the latest unemployment figures published by the National Statistics Office, noting how the number of registered unemployed has been falling by an average of 5 a day this year.

The latest NSO figures show that the number of registered unemployed in August was 6,698, down by nearly 1,100 when compared to January 2014 and the lowest number registered since July 2012.

The government noted that unemployment has been decreasing in spite of the opposition's insistence that it was on the increase and that the economy was not generating enough jobs. The NSO figures, it added, proved these "negative" messages wrong.

In its statement, the government said also said that the situation was greatly different to the situation under the previous government, noting that in the last seven months of the previous administration, the number of registered unemployed had increased by 458,translating to more than two persons daily.

It added that over the previous government's five years, the number of registered unemployed had increased by nearly 1,000 people - nearly as much as the decrease recorded in the past few months.