BRASILIA ¨C Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff until recently appeared to be cruising toward re-election in October but she now finds herself in a tight race as an already sluggish economy takes a turn for the worse.
Economic growth, slow for most of her term, looks even less promising this year with economists expecting a contraction in the second quarter.
Inflation is running at just over 6.5 percent and employment figures, long one of the bright spots in Latin America¡¯s biggest economy, recently began to show trouble. Industrial output has slumped for the last three months and is on track to shrink more the 1 percent this year, prompting some manufacturers to start cutting jobs.
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