RIYADH: Spain’s number of jobless claims dropped 3.29 percent in May reaching its lowest level since 2008. The number of people registering as jobless in Spain fell 3.29 percent in May from April, by 99,512 people, leaving 2.92 million people out of work, the lowest number since November 2008, when the financial crisis hit the country, Labour Ministry’s data showed on Thursday. The total number of jobless had not dropped below three million people since December 2008. Spain added 33,366 net jobs during the month, separate data from the Social Security Ministry showed. The number of formal jobs had already hit an all-time record in April. Ukraine raises key rate Ukraine sharply hiked its main interest rate to 25 percent from 10 percent on Thursday, tightening monetary policy for the first time since the Russian invasion to tackle double digit inflation and protect incomes and savings during the war. Ukraine had frozen its key interest rate at 10 percent following Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24 despite surging inflation, citing the high level of uncertainty and limited effect of monetary transmission in wartime. US productivity tumbles US worker productivity fell at its steepest pace since 1947 in the first quarter, while growth in unit labor costs accelerated, the government confirmed on Thursday, signs that strong wage gains will likely persist and contribute to inflation staying uncomfortably high for a while. Nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, tumbled at a 7.3 percent annualized rate last quarter, the deepest since the third quarter of 1947, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was an upward revision to the 7.5 percent pace of decline estimated last month. Productivity grew at a 6.3 percent rate in the fourth quarter. Unit labor costs — the price of labor per single unit of output — accelerated at a 12.6 percent rate. That was revised up from the 11.6 percent growth pace reported in May and followed a 3.9 percent expansion rate in the October-December quarter. Pakistan’s central bank reserves fall The State Bank of Pakistan said on Thursday that its liquid foreign exchange reserves had fallen by $366 million to $9.7 billion. In the week to May 27, reserves decreased due to an external debt repayment, the bank said in a press release. Total liquid foreign reserves stood at $15.7 billion, of which commercial banks held 6 billion. (With input from Reuters)