BRASILIA (Reuters) – Approval of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government was roughly stable in December, according to two polls released on Thursday.
Nearing the end of the first year of his third non-consecutive term after a fierce election, the leftist president had an approval rate of 38% in a survey by Datafolha, flat from its previous release in September.
The percentage of respondents expressing disapproval edged down to 30% from 31% but was still above the 27% registered in June. Anther 30% were neutral.
A separate survey by pollster Ipec also showed that 38% of respondents had positive views of Lula’s government, down from 40% in the previous poll released in September but within the poll’s margin of error.
Disapproval was 30%, compared with 25% in September.
For 39% of the people interviewed by Ipec, Brazil’s economy is better than expected, while 36% believe it is worse.
Datafolha interviewed 2,004 people in 135 Brazilian cities on Dec. 5. Ipec polled 2,000 people in 128 cities Dec. 1 to 5. Both surveys have a margin of error of two percentage points up or down.
(Reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello; Writing by Peter Frontini; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
