Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stands during honours ceremony for the visit of Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, May 3, 2024. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Approval of Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva went up in July to the highest level in 2024, a poll showed on Wednesday, with most respondents having favorable views on his criticism of the central bank's interest rate policy.
Approval of Lula's way of governing rose to 54% this month from 50% in May, according to the survey conducted by pollster Genial/Quaest, while disapproval slipped to 43% from 47% in the previous survey.
According to Genial/Quaest, 87% of the poll respondents agreed with Lula's opinion that interest rates in Brazil are way too high.
While 66% showed support for his public criticism of the central bank's policy stance, the poll also found that 64% of the people polled had never "heard of" Lula's bashing of the monetary authority.
The poll also showed that 53% of people did not see recent comments from Lula as the reason behind the weakening of the Brazilian real against the U.S. dollar, with 34% holding him accountable and 13% not knowing how to answer.
The Brazilian currency has fallen more than 10% so far in 2024, recently hit by a strong greenback and, according to market participants, fears about Lula's commitment to his government's fiscal targets and his feud with central bank head Roberto Campos Neto.
The Genial/Quaest survey heard 2,000 people eligible to vote from July 5-8. The poll had an error margin of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
(Reporting by Luana Maria Benedito; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
