Lula approval falls on perception Brazil economy slipping: Poll

BRASILIA - Approval of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's performance has fallen in the last two months as Brazilians worry that Latin America's largest economy is worsening, a new Genial/Quaest poll showed on Wednesday.

Approval of his way of governing has fallen to 54 per cent in October from 60 per cent in August, while 42 per cent of those polled say he is doing a bad job, up from 35 per cent in the previous survey.

Positive approval of his 10-month-old government has also slipped to 38 per cent from 42 per cent of respondents in August, and negative views rose 5 percentage points to 29 per cent, the poll found.

The number of Brazilians who see the economy deteriorating has risen to 32 per cent from 23 per cent in August, as optimism dipped to 33 per cent from 34 per cent of those who see the economy improving.

Still, more Brazilians believe Lula is doing better than his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro: 47 per cent of those polled think his government is better than Bolsonaro's, down from 49 per cent in August, and those that say his government is worse rose to 38 per cent from 34 per cent in two months.

Genial/Quaest interviewed 2,000 people of voting age between Oct 19 and Oct 22. The poll has a 2.2 percentage point error margin. REUTERS