Brazil - World Cup & Olympics

In the mid-1990s, Brazil's economy had been stabilized and economically, things were looking pretty good for Brazil. Not even the collapse of Lehman harmed Brazil's economy in 2008. Instead in 2010, Brazil grew by 7.5%. The thriving economic performance for Brazil is probably one of the main reasons this South American country was awarded the honor in hosting not only the World Cup in 2014, but the 2016 Summer Olympics as well.

As of 2012, things have not been looking great for Brazil and now it's questionable if this is the best country to be hosting the World Cup and Olympics, especially with the recent protests started back in June of this year. In June, Brazil had one of the biggest protests of the generation with the people complaining of high living costs, poor public services, and the greed and corruption of the politicians. Long story short, due to the Brazil's previous boom, they played themselves out from the inflation and opening up to trade, commodity price rises, and big increases in credit and consumption. (The Economist).

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Critics talk about how the Brazilian government focuses more on building prestige projects for the World Cup and Olympics, but don't focus on improving their economic and social problems, thus creating potential flashpoints. According to Clare Dixon, from the UK Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, "People in Brazil are absolutely delighted that they are hosting the World Cup in 2014, but what they are saying is -- if we can have world-standard football stadiums, why can't we have world-standard housing, world-standard healthcare, world-standard education?"

Forbes also mentions, The 124 richest people in Brazil hold assets that total $238.6 billion, or 12.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product. When Rousseff launched her poverty reduction program in 2011 some 16 million Brazilians were said to be living in extreme poverty, defined as having $30 and sometimes less a month to live on. (UPI (United Press International)).

There are hopes that the World Cup and Olympics would help boost Brazil's economy, but is it too late?



Link to The Economist article

Link to the UPI article