The latest edition of U.S. magazine Newsweek ranks Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva 18th on its list of the world's 50 most influential people.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama was named the most influential person.
Chinese President Hu Jintao ranked second, followed by his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.
The next three on the list were the so-called "economic triumvirate": the Central Bank Governors of the United States (Ben Bernanke), Europe (Jean-Claude Trichet) and Japan (Masaaki Shirakawa).
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ranked seventh, followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Lula finished higher than others such as Pope Benedict XVI, who ranked 37th, and Osama bin Laden, who ranked 42nd.
According to Newsweek, when Lula took over the presidency in January 2003, Brazil was at the edge of ruin, the magazine said. Lula rules a country with foreign exchange reserves of more than 200 billion U.S. dollars, and an inflation rate that is the lowest in the developing world.
"Thanks to Lula's fiscal smarts, Brazil is among the world's healthiest emerging economies," the magazine said.
Source:Xinhua
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