Sublime

When I interviewed him in 2006, Lula da Silva talked a lot about this combination of economic stability and trade growth. He had grown up on a farm in rural Pernambuco in the north-east, and in the early 1950s made the long trip to São Paulo with his mother and brothers on the back of a lorry. During his teens, Lula had sold oranges and peanuts at

Critics would claim that Lula had been lucky. During the 1990s his party had opposed both the Real Plan and the subsequent rounds of fiscal austerity that had eventually vanquished inflation. The trade boom – from which his government benefited – was mainly a result of China’s own growth and opening to world markets, and the neat fit between this

On the international stage, Lula is best-known for his Bolsa Familia (family grant) social programme. Like his famed economic stabilisation policies, the grant was initiated by his main…

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