Brazil's foreign exchange outflow hit $16.1 billion in the first four weeks of December 2019, up 25% from $12.8 billion in the year-ago period, Reuters reported, citing data from Banco Central do Brasil.

The outflow of dollars from Latin America's biggest economy picked up its pace in the last week of November, when the dollar rose to 4.28 Brazilian reais.

The result was spurred by an $18.8 billion outflow from the financial account, the largest recorded for any given month since the beginning of the central bank's data collection in 1982. Last month's overall net foreign exchange outflow is also seen as the largest since September 1998.

With December's outcome, the country is set to reach its highest ever annual foreign exchange outflow in 2019 at $43.25 billion, nearly triple the previous record of $16.18 billion in 1999, Reuters said.

As of Jan. 2, US$1 was equivalent to 4.03 Brazilian reais.