Brazilians back Petrobras probe - poll

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Published Feb 2, 2016

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Sao Paulo - An overwhelming majority of Brazilians want an investigation into a sprawling kickback scheme at state-controlled oil producer Petrobras to continue despite concern it is hurting the nation's ailing economy, according to a poll released on Monday.

Fully 90 percent of Brazilians say the investigation should continue, whatever the cost, according to the survey by polling firm Ipsos. Forty-six percent of those asked indicated they thought the scandal was damaging an already weak economy.

Read: Petrobras cut to junk

The poll also found that President Dilma Rousseff's popularity remains in the single digits, with just 5 percent of those asked saying she was doing a good or great job.

That makes Rousseff the most unpopular president since Brazil's return to democracy three decades ago and represents a sharp drop from when she was re-elected in October 2014. At that time, 48 percent polled by Ipsos said she was doing a great or a good job.

The poll found Brazilians are pessimistic about the nation's path, with 92 percent of those surveyed saying the country was “not on the right track.”

That represents a massive turnabout from last October - at that time, 60 percent of those asked by Ipsos thought Brazil was headed in the right direction.

Brazil's economy is mired in what is set to be its worst recession in a century, worsened by the graft scandal focused on Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is officially known. A spreading epidemic of the mosquito-borne Zika virus has been linked to some 3 700 birth defects in newborns.

The Ipsos survey interviewed 1 200 people across Brazil between January 13 and January 27. The margin of error was 3 percentage points.

REUTERS

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