Brazilian government approval rating at 7.7% in poll

The Brazilian government's approval rating has dwindled to 7.7 percent amid anger over corruption, a stagnant economy and growing unemployment, says a poll released Tuesday.

Support for President Dilma Rousseff herself stood at 15.5 percent in the survey by pollster MDA. Eighty percent of those polled criticize the way she has done her job.

Rousseff began her second term just six months ago after winning re-election by a thin margin, and things are already looking grim.

She is under siege from a corruption scandal at the state-run oil giant Petrobras which has also implicated the ruling Workers' Party. She used to chair the board at the company, from 2003 to 2010, a period in which the corruption allegedly flourished.

About 71 percent of those polled for Tuesday's study said they have a negative view of the government, and 20.5 percent said it was doing an "average" job.

The decline in popularity has been steady.

A poll in March by the same company found that support for the government had dropped suddenly to 10.8 percent.
Before the elections, support for the government stood at 41 percent of those polled.

Rouseff's popularity has crumbled as her woes gnaw away at her and her government.

There were two huge anti-government demonstrations in March and April.

Revelations from the Petrobras corruption scandal keep coming, too.

The Workers' Party, in power for 12 years, and five other parties have been cited in confessions of suspects in the Petrobras scandal who are cooperating with the authorities in exchange for lighter prison terms.

Rousseff said two weeks ago her dismal approval ratings were due to the economy.

"I am sure that is going to improve," she said.

Once a powerhouse, Brazil has posted negative or zero economic growth for the past four years, and government forecasts are for output to decline by as much 1.75 percent this year.