By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to recently released calculations by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Brazil’s unemployment has reached its lowest level since the institute began recording the figure in 2002.
Surveying the six main metropolitan regions of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Recife, Salvador and Porto Alegre, the IBGE found that the unemployment rate had fallen to its all-time record low of 4.3 percent in December of 2013.
The news surprised some as the Brazilian currency continues to weaken against the dollar and inflation worries persist. “Generally speaking, the foreign exchange rate can have a devastating effect on the Brazilian economy,” Carlos Lima, chief economist of financial infrastructure company CMA told Forbes.
Factoring in Brazil’s current economic status, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had forecasted in their World Economic Outlook Database a year end unemployment of approximately six percent for Brazil.
However, according to the IBGE’s calculations, the yearly average of unemployment for 2013 was also a record annual low at the rate of 5.4 percent. The number of those employed in December of 2013 was 23.3 million, an increase of 24.8 percent compared to the numbers recorded in 2003.
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