Dilma Rosuseff wins Brazilian presidential elections

According to Brazil's electoral court, Ms. Rousseff won a second term in power after obtaining 51.45% of the popular vote, versus 48.55% for her rival Aecio Neves.

While the results were by no means unexpected the possibility of such a tight run-off in the second round of voting had indeed not been anticipated by most observers as recently as just a few weeks ago.

Then again, a recent opinion poll carried out by Data Folha showed that approximately 65% of Brazilians consider themselves to be ideologically aligned with center and right-wing philosophies.

Rousseff had come under considerable criticism from markets for her inability to seize the opportunity offered up by the recent boom for commodities in China to fund improvements in Brazil's economic competitiveness.

For some economists the so-called commodity super-cycle was in no mean part the main factor behind her predecessor Inacio Lula da Silva's ability to successfully combine a certain degree of economic orthodoxy with measures aimed at helping the country's most economically disfavoured.

In recent times however said boom had moderated significantly, exposing the lack of sufficient macroeconomic reforms by both Ms. Rousseff and da Silva.