Brazilian Minister of Labour Ronaldo Nogueira has said jobs are being lost in his country at a slower rate than before, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese government-run news agency says Mr Nogueira was speaking after the publication of official figures indicating that only 63,624 Brazilian workers were laid off last month, bringing the number of layoffs in the past 12 months to 1.09 million.

“The loss of jobs has been systematically reduced, and this is the trend month by month,” Xinhua quotes the minister as saying. “This indicates that Brazil is heading for stability and can soon guarantee solid growth in job creation.”

The International Monetary Fund forecast last week that the Brazilian economy would grow this year, having forecast previously that it would shrink.