Brazil Front-runner's Privatization Vows 'unclear' But Favored Over Rival's

Investors in Brazil are cheered by the prospect of far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro winning power because of his privatization promises that -- though still unclear -- are regarded far more favorably than the status quo offered by his leftist rival.

Rio de Janeiro, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Oct, 2018 ) :Investors in Brazil are cheered by the prospect of far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro winning power because of his privatization promises that -- though still unclear -- are regarded far more favorably than the status quo offered by his leftist rival.

The country's stock market has soared and declined on Bolsonaro's indications of how he plans to turn around a fragile economy that is barely managing to rise out of a record-bad recession that ended just two years ago.

Much of the investor enthusiasm lies with Bolsonaro's pick for economy minister if he wins: his advisor Paulo Guedes, a respected, US-trained liberal economist who has proposed a sweeping shake-up to do away with Brazil's protectionist traditions.

But Guedes has contemplated measures going far beyond what Bolsonaro -- a veteran politician who long backed Brazil's statist model -- has finally said he is willing to implement.

Most notably, Bolsonaro last week said he would only allow non-core units of both state oil company Petrobras and electricity group Eletrobras to be sold off, warning that foreign investors -- especially China, which he accused of "buying Brazil" -- were not welcome in strategic businesses in the energy sector.

Shares in Eletrobras, which generates around a third of Brazil's electricity, plunged more than eight percent the next day.