Brazil: Dollar soars, unemployment falls

The economy in South America's largest country is taking a shaky turn as Friday's figures would indicate. The exchange rate between the local real (R$) and the US dollar (US$) went up 15.15% over the past six months, closing at US$ 1 = R$ 5.58 while the Stock market fell 0.32% for a 1.49% monthly gain. On the brighter side, unemployment in the quarter ending in May stood at 7.1%, according to Brazil's Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), a considerable improvement from February's 7.8% and the yoy 8.3%.