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Brazilian election points to stability and growth - 2 November 2010

The final round of presidential elections in Brazil took place over the weekend, with Dilma Rousseff winning a decisive victory over José Serra in the run-off ballot with 56 per cent of the vote. Rousseff, who becomes Brazil’s first female President, is a former Marxist rebel who was handpicked by outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as his successor.

Such an endorsement from one of Brazil’s most popular rulers in history should have guaranteed an easy victory, and possibly even without the need for a second-round of voting. However, a bitterly-fought campaign and some lacklustre public appearances from Rousseff took the vote into a decisive round.

The result has been greeted with enthusiasm around the world, as President-elect Rousseff has pledged to continue the work begun by Lula to eradicate the extreme poverty still suffered by a large proportion of the Brazilian population. She inherits a country on the rise – Brazil will host the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 – by which time it is expected to be the fifth-largest economy in the world.

Samantha Gore, Sales Manager for Brazil estate agents www.uv10.com, comments, “Serious overseas property investors are always concerned about the health of a nation, both politically and economically, and a general election can be a turning point – for better or worse. Truthfully, the best outcome for Brazil would have been the re-election of da Silva. The charismatic President had an all-time high job-approval rate of 83% in October thanks to record low unemployment and a booming economy. However, according to Brazil’s Constitution, da Silva was ineligible having reached his limit of two successive four-year terms in office. Rousseff is the next best alternative. As da Silva’s former Chief of Staff and his self-anointed successor, she is unlikely to divert from current government policy and could arguably be ‘keeping the seat warm’ for da Silva’s permissible return in four years time.”

Samantha continues, “Certainly things could not be rosier for Brazil in 2010. Recent social policies such as Minha Casa Minha Vida, the low-income housing scheme, and Bolsa Familiar, the anti-poverty scheme, have helped pull 20 million Brazilians out of poverty and shifted another 29 million into a rapidly growing middle class. Meanwhile Brazil’s GDP is outperforming the predictions of the global experts surging by 9% year-on-year – its fastest growth rate in around 14 years.”

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