LIMA (Reuters) – The approval rating of Peru’s recently elected president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has risen slightly in September, as Peruvians have supported his plans to spark economic growth, a survey by pollster Ipsos Peru showed on Sunday. Kuczynski, who took office at the end of July after a close run-off election, had the backing of 63 percent of Peruvians in September, up two percentage points since August, according to the poll published in national newspaper El Comercio. The pollster said that the most common reasons among respondents for supporting Kuczynski were that “he has good plans,” “he is working to improve the economy,” and “he has experience and potential.” Kuczynski, considered a business-friendly leader, has filled his cabinet with technocrats and was in China last week talking to potential investors in Peru’s mining and railway sectors.
Of the 17 percent of Peruvians who disapproved of Kuczynski, the principal reason cited was his perceived lack of seriousness. In his first months in office he has garnered a reputation for off-kilter humor on topics such as contraception and the porous nature of the country’s border with Bolivia. The survey polled 1,267 people from Sept. 13 to 15, with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
(Reporting by Teresa Cespedes; Writing by Gram Slattery; Editing by James Dalgleish)