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RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- With a growing economy, Brazil's unemployment rate will inevitably start falling in 2017, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said on Friday.
Earlier in the day, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) announced that the unemployment rate was 11.8 percent in the quarter ending in August, a growth of 3.0 percentage points compared with the same period last year.
The figures have been the highest since 2012 when IBGE started calculating the unemployment rate quarterly rather than monthly.
Brazil is still in an economic recession, so it is "premature" to say that the country's economic recovery has begun, he said.
However, looking at the stabilizing economy, a process of recovery may start and be further consolidated next year, he added.
Meirelles defended the controversial constitutional amendment to cut public expenditures, which will be put to the vote in the Congress. Enditem
