Confederations Cup contributes $4.37bn US to Brazil\'s GDP

The 2013 Confederations Cup boosted Brazil's gross domestic product (GDP) by 9.7 billion reals (4.37 billion U.S. dollars), the Tourism Ministry said Monday. According to a report compiled by the Foundation Institute for Economic Research (FIPE) and released by the ministry on its website, 58 percent of the total revenue remained in the host cities and 42 percent was distributed to the rest of the country. The report said the money generated by the Confederations Cup derived from tourist spending, the Local Organizing Committee, and the public and private investment in the event. "The outcome shows that the impact of the tournament is not limited to the places where the games take place, it has an impact on all of Brazil," Tourism Minister Vinicius Lages said on the site. The event also created 303,000 jobs, 60 percent of them in the host cities, and the remaining 40 percent in the rest of the country. The government is keen to prove such large-scale sporting events are good for Brazil's economy, after anti-government protests broke out during last year's Confederations Cup, calling for better public services amid massive public spending on the prestige events. The government now hopes that the 2014 World Cup of soccer, which Brazil will host from June 12 to July 13, will generate about three times that amount