The ongoing global financial crisis caused Brazilian president's approval rate to drop from 70 to 65 percent, said a survey released Friday by the consulting company Datafolha.

It was the first fall in President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's approval rate since he started the second term in 2007.

Despite the drop, Lula's approval rate remains much higher than his predecessors' since the end of the country's military government in the 1980s.

According to the survey, a total of 27 percent of Brazilians consider the Lula administration good, from 23 percent in the November survey. Eight percent thought the Lula administration bad or very bad, from seven percent in November.

The average grade of the Lula administration also fell, going from 7.6 in the last survey to 7.4 percent in March, higher than the 7.0 percent Lula received in September.

The highest approval rate for Lula was registered in the northeastern region (77 percent), and the lowest was in the southern region (57 percent).

The survey showed that the crisis has been affecting more Brazilians, with 81 percent of them said they were aware of effects of the crisis, from 72 percent in November.

In addition, 55 percent of Brazilians think the crisis will not affect the country too much, from 58 percent in November; 31 percent think the country will be deeply affected, up from 20 percent.

Source: Xinhua