BRASÍLIA: Brazil's jobless rate crept up in February to 5.9 percent, a second straight monthly rise taking the index to its highest level since 2011, official figures showed Thursday.
The national statistical institute IBGE showed a 0.6 percent increase over January while the February level was 0.8 percent higher than 12 months earlier.
The number of jobless seeking work is estimated at 1.4 million people -- 10.2 percent higher than in January and 14.1 percent up on February last year, the figures showed.
The increase comes with Brazil's economy, the world's seventh-largest, struggling after four straight years of low growth and forecast to hover close to zero this year. A huge graft scandal involving state-owned oil firm Petrobras has, meanwhile, fueled political and public unrest.
Inflation is on the rise after surpassing government targets and the local currency, the real, has plunged in recent weeks against the dollar.
At the end of last year, joblessness stood at an official record year-end low of 4.8 percent.
The Central Bank Thursday revealed its weekly analyst forecast for inflation hitting 8 percent this year, surpassing a government maximum target of 6.5 percent, with GDP contracting by 0.5 percent.
Friday is expected to see figures showing a drop of around 0.1 percent in GDP for 2014.
The IBGE jobless count has since 2002 measured unemployment in six large metropolitan regions -- Recife and Salvador in the north, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in the southeast and Porto Alegre in the south.
Comments
Comments are closed.