The Brazilian real strengthened slightly to 5.16 per dollar after falling to a more than one-month low of 5.21 on August 14. Expectations of new foreign-exchange operations by BCB (Brazil's central bank) are supporting the currency, as intervention could increase dollar supply, preserve market liquidity and influence exchange-rate formation. Brazil's unemployment rate also declined from 5.4% to 5.3%, while employment and formal employment reached record highs. The resilient labor market could prompt Copom (Brazil's monetary policy committee) to pause its cycle of easing by 25 basis points per meeting. Inflation, however, eased to 4.25% in the first half of August from 4.44% in July, remaining below the central bank's 4.5% upper tolerance band.