Brazil's Rousseff faces bleak second-term panorama

Significance

Only a month into her second term, President Dilma Rousseff faces an increasingly complicated panorama. In addition to fallout from corruption investigations into state-controlled oil major Petrobras, there is growing discontent over tax rises and cuts in social security benefits. Electricity and water shortages may also trigger instability in coming months.

Impacts

• Fiscal tightening measures do not address the structural causes of Brazil's uneven economic performance.
• The continuing lack of rain points to a rising risk of water and electricity rationing.
• Rousseff is at risk of being implicated in the Petrobras bribery scandal, having chaired the company's board between 2003 and 2010.