A jump in polling for a far-right politician leading the race for Brazil's presidency spurred financial markets on Tuesday as investors wagered his privatization-friendly policies could boost the flagging economy.
Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain espousing ultra-conservative social views and iron-fisted policies on crime and corruption, is seen as the favorite going into the first round of presidential elections to be held on Sunday.
A survey put out Monday by the Ibope polling company credited him with 31 percent of voter intentions in that round, well ahead of his nearest rival, leftwing Socialist Party candidate Fernando Haddad, on 21 percent.
That prompted Sao Paulo's stock market to rise by 3.5 percent in the middle of trading on Tuesday, and pushed the Brazilian real higher against the dollar.
"Bolsonaro is starting to be the one the financial market most identifies with, mainly for his future finance minister," said Wellington Ramos, an analyst with the consulting firm Austin Rating.
Bolsonaro, 63, has said his choice for finance minister would be Paulo Guedes, a respected, US-educated economist.
Bolsonaro is a polarizing figure in Brazil who has won sudden prominence ahead of the election despite being in the country's congress since 1991. He has offered degrading comments against women, slammed same-sex marriage and abortion, and lauded Brazil's past under military rule.
But he has earned support from Brazil's whiter, wealthier population living mostly in the country's south for his uncompromising anti-crime rhetoric and for being one of very few politicians not to be tainted by corruption allegations.
Brazil is also desperate for a return to prosperity after emerging last year from its worst recession on record as a limping shadow of its once buoyant self.
Bolsonaro has promised to secure that by adopting advice from liberal economists such as Guedes. He has vowed to slash public debt by selling off state assets and reform the burdened pension system.
- Uncertain final round -
The growing support for Bolsonaro makes him the candidate to beat from a dozen-strong field going into Sunday's election. The two top vote-winners will go on to a knockout round on October 28, with the victor taking office in January 2019.
According to the surveys, Haddad is looking most likely to contest a run-off against Bolsonaro.
A 55-year-old former education minister and mayor of Brazil's biggest city Sao Paulo, Haddad also soared from relative obscurity to be the Workers Party's candidate after its first choice, widely popular onetime president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, was declared ineligible as he serves a 12-year prison term for graft.
Although he can count on backing from many of Brazil's poorer citizens, mostly in the northwest, Haddad's proposed policies of lifting a freeze on public spending and slowing the pace of privatizations do not sit easily with investors. His steady rise in polling has seemingly stalled.
Surveys suggest a knockout round between Bolsonaro and Haddad would be difficult to predict, with each seen winning around 42 percent of voting intentions according to the Ibope poll.
A jump in polling for a far-right politician leading the race for Brazil’s presidency spurred financial markets on Tuesday as investors wagered his privatization-friendly policies could boost the flagging economy.
Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain espousing ultra-conservative social views and iron-fisted policies on crime and corruption, is seen as the favorite going into the first round of presidential elections to be held on Sunday.
A survey put out Monday by the Ibope polling company credited him with 31 percent of voter intentions in that round, well ahead of his nearest rival, leftwing Socialist Party candidate Fernando Haddad, on 21 percent.
That prompted Sao Paulo’s stock market to rise by 3.5 percent in the middle of trading on Tuesday, and pushed the Brazilian real higher against the dollar.
“Bolsonaro is starting to be the one the financial market most identifies with, mainly for his future finance minister,” said Wellington Ramos, an analyst with the consulting firm Austin Rating.
Bolsonaro, 63, has said his choice for finance minister would be Paulo Guedes, a respected, US-educated economist.
Bolsonaro is a polarizing figure in Brazil who has won sudden prominence ahead of the election despite being in the country’s congress since 1991. He has offered degrading comments against women, slammed same-sex marriage and abortion, and lauded Brazil’s past under military rule.
But he has earned support from Brazil’s whiter, wealthier population living mostly in the country’s south for his uncompromising anti-crime rhetoric and for being one of very few politicians not to be tainted by corruption allegations.
Brazil is also desperate for a return to prosperity after emerging last year from its worst recession on record as a limping shadow of its once buoyant self.
Bolsonaro has promised to secure that by adopting advice from liberal economists such as Guedes. He has vowed to slash public debt by selling off state assets and reform the burdened pension system.
– Uncertain final round –
The growing support for Bolsonaro makes him the candidate to beat from a dozen-strong field going into Sunday’s election. The two top vote-winners will go on to a knockout round on October 28, with the victor taking office in January 2019.
According to the surveys, Haddad is looking most likely to contest a run-off against Bolsonaro.
A 55-year-old former education minister and mayor of Brazil’s biggest city Sao Paulo, Haddad also soared from relative obscurity to be the Workers Party’s candidate after its first choice, widely popular onetime president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, was declared ineligible as he serves a 12-year prison term for graft.
Although he can count on backing from many of Brazil’s poorer citizens, mostly in the northwest, Haddad’s proposed policies of lifting a freeze on public spending and slowing the pace of privatizations do not sit easily with investors. His steady rise in polling has seemingly stalled.
Surveys suggest a knockout round between Bolsonaro and Haddad would be difficult to predict, with each seen winning around 42 percent of voting intentions according to the Ibope poll.
