Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff. Photo: Reuters

President Dilma Rousseff’s approval rating rose almost seven percentage points over the past month, as her popularity recovers from a battering by the massive street protests that shook Brazil in June, a poll published yesterday showed.

The number of Brazilians who approve of her government’s performance rose to 38.1 per cent in August from 31.3 per cent in July, according to the poll commissioned by private transport sector lobby CNT and conducted by MDA Pesquisa.

Those who disapprove of the government’s performance dropped to 21.9 per cent from 29.5 per cent in July, the survey said.

The poll confirmed a trend by other recent surveys that show her chances of re-election in 2014 are improving.

Voting intentions for Rousseff increased to 36.4 per cent from 33.4 per cent in July, compared to 22 per cent for former environment minister Marina Silva and 15.2 per cent for Aecio Neves, who is the likely candidate of the main opposition party PSDB.

The CNT/MDA poll of 2,002 people was conducted between August 31 and September 4. The study has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.