Joe Leahy – Financial Times, 10/02/2012
Brazil’s 36th president leans forward and casts an intent look around the table, ensuring no one misses her simple yet bold idea of what she wants for the country.After nearly 10 years of rule by the Workers’ party (PT), Latin America’s largest economy has slashed poverty rates and gone a long way to reducing inequality – a trend that runs contrary to widening gaps elsewhere.
“This, I think, is a very important gain for Brazil – that is, to transform Brazil into a middle-class population,” Dilma Rousseff says in her office in the Palácio do Planalto in Brasília, the modernist marble wonder designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the Brazilian architect. “We want this; we want a middle-class Brazil.”
Remarkable progress has been made towards improving the lot of millions in what remains one of the world’s most unequal societies. Its economic miracle has helped lift 30m-40m people out of poverty, created markets for domestic and multinational companies and drawn in global investors.
