Global General

A few big cities own half of Brazil's wealth

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-13 15:16
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RIO DE JANEIRO -- Nearly half of Brazil's gross domestic product (GDP) is concentrated in a few municipalities, a research center said Thursday.

The Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) found that 47 percent of Brazil's GDP is concentrated in 56 cities, which account for only 1 percent of all cities, and 2,226 poorer cities (40 percent of the total) own only 4.7 percent.

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Brazil's wealth used to be more equally distributed. In 1920, the wealthiest 1 percent of cities owned 21 percent, while the poorest 40 percent of cities owned 9.4 percent, the IPEA said

The IPEA used an indicator similar to the Gini coefficient, an index to measure wealth imbalance. The indicator goes from zero to one: The higher the figures, the more concentrated the wealth is.

Brazil got 0.86, indicating a severe wealth imbalance. The southeastern region, where the country's largest cities like Rio and Sao Paulo are located, registered the highest indicator of 0.89, followed by the midwestern region with 0.85.

The IPEA suggested government investment and an integrated development policy could help avoid further wealth imbalance.