Brasilia, March 20 : Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has garnered a 41 per cent approval rating since taking office on January 1 for a third term, an opinion poll has showed. The poll, conducted by pollster IPEC (Intelligence in Research and Strategic Consulting) and published on Sunday by news outlet O Globo, showed Lula enjoys higher approval than his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) did at the start of his term (34 per cent), reports Xinhua news agency. Some 41 percent of those surveyed rated his administration as "good" or "excellent", and 30 per cent rated it as "regular", said IPEC. Lula received better ratings at the start of his two previous terms with 51 per cent approval in 2003 and 49 per cent in 2007, the pollster noted. IPEC's executive director, Marcia Cavallari, told O Globo that the President's approval is at a "good level", because half of the respondents who rated his administration as "regular" approve of the way he is governing. The survey shows Brazil's northeast region, the poorest in the country, is where the President has the highest approval rating, with 53 per cent of respondents describing his administration as "good" or "excellent". Lula was least supported in the Central-West region and the northern Amazon, where his approval rating stood at 31 per cent. /IANS