By David Owen
April 8 – The Brazilian government has fired a numerical salvo in the direction of critics who continue to argue that hosting sporting mega-events such as the 2014 FIFA World Cup is not in the country’s best interests.
An economic impact study of last year’s Confederations Cup, effectively a test event for the World Cup itself, claims that the tournament led to a total of reals 20.7 billion ($9.3 billion) in financial transactions and added reals 9.7 billion ($4.37 billion) to Brazilian gross domestic product (GDP).
The study, conducted by the Economic Research Institute Foundation (FIPE) and published by the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism, also says that the competition created the equivalent of more than 300,000 jobs.
Some 58% of the reals 9.7 billion in extra GDP is said to have been spent in the six host cities of Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Recife, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, with 42% disbursed elsewhere. This finding was pounced on by Tourism Minister Vinicius Lages, who said it showed that the tournament’s impact was “not restricted to host-cities” and had “an impact on the whole of Brazil.”
FIFA recently revealed that the demonstration-marred tournament generated net ticketing income of just over $50 million; expenses related to the event were put at almost $70 million.
The governing body’s recently-published 2013 financial report also disclosed that unexpected costs last year forced it to earmark an extra $70 million for the 2014 World Cup.
Rio, the city which is to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games as well as the World Cup final, was said to have recorded both the highest number of financial transactions among the Confederations Cup host-cities (reals 6 billion) and the highest number of jobs generated (59,000).
Investments made for the Confederations Cup, won convincingly by hosts Brazil, were said to represent 36% of the total predicted for the 12 World Cup host-cities.
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