Brazilian government to monitor World Cup price hikes
The Brazilian government has said it will monitor price hikes over fears that hoteliers and airlines are over-inflating prices ahead of next year’s football World Cup.
The move comes just a week after a Brazilian newspaper reported that during the World Cup some airlines were charging more than $1,000 dollars (£619.20) for the 50-minute flight between the country’s two biggest cities, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
The government’s own tourist agency said hotel prices in Rio de Janeiro, where the World Cup final will take place on July 13 next year, would be more than twice that of Johannesburg, host city of the 2010 final.
"The government won’t tolerate any kind of abuse," Interior Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo told Reuters. "We have mechanisms to prevent it and we will be taking appropriate action."
But Cardozo did not say what action the government might take and his colleagues admitted they will not set prices.
The World Cup takes place in 12 Brazilian cities next June and July.
Soaring prices are one of the major grievances of Brazilians, with a rise in bus fares sparking widespread protests across the country in June.
According to Mercer’s latest Cost of Living Survey, Sao Paulo is now the 19th most expensive city in the world, ahead of New York and just two positions below London.
Diane
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