Brazil’s unemployment rate decreased more-than-expected in December, figures from the statistical office IBGE showed Thursday.

The jobless rate fell to 6.9 percent in December from 7.5 percent in the previous month. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to drop to 7.3 percent.

This was the highest ever jobless rate recorded for the month of December since 2007, when it was 7.4 percent, the agency said.

In the corresponding month last year, the jobless rate was 4.3 percent.

The number of unemployed people totaled 1.7 million in December, which was 7.6 percent fewer than from the previous month.

The average unemployment rate for the whole year 2015 was 6.8 percent versus 4.8 percent in 2014. This was the largest annual series of the research and also broke the downward trend that occurred since 2010.

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