Between those two events are the pivotal October elections, which will determine if South America’s largest country is going to stick with populist policies and price controls or start doing some very unpopular things to mitigate inflation and revitalize the stagnating economy. More than half of Brazil’s 200 million population is considered to be part of the middle class, according to a study by the private research group Getulio Vargas Foundation. By 2020, the Boston Consulting Group projects that upper-middle-class and affluent families will make up 37% of Brazilian households, compared with 29% in 2010.