Economy Boost for Brazil when World Cup arrives

The one year countdown has started in London and the World Cup but in Brazil its a three year countdown to the 2014 soccer World Cup. The event will boost host country Brazil’s economy by 1.5 percent of its annual gross domestic product, prostate said the chief economist of Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB4), and Latin America’s largest bank by market value.

Brazil has a budget $ US 20.6 billion to construct the roads, stadiums, airports and other projects required to host sport’s most-watched event.

Its hoped that this investment will create 250,000 new jobs and generate about $24 billion, Itau’s Ilan Goldfajn told reporters at a press briefing in Rio de Janeiro today.

“The impact of the spending both on infrastructure and spending by the private sector produces 1 percent of GDP, the rest comes from the multiplier effect,” Goldfajn said. Itau is an official World Cup sponsor.

Past hosts such as Germany and South Africa saw GDP increases of 0.5 percent during the World Cup year, according to FIFA and government figures.

Work still hasn’t been completed on any of Brazil’s 12 stadiums to host games, airports must be renovated to cope with the demands of moving millions of visitors and the country’s hotel inventory needs to be expanded.