Brazil increases Budget by $11 billion for Rio 2016 Olympics

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 22: Brazil has raised the official budget for the Rio 2016 Olympics by 70 million reais to 38.67 billion reais ($11 billion), authorities said.

Brazil’s Olympic Public Authority (APO) in its third matrix of responsibilities report on Friday said the increase was made because of additional costs associated with Olympic venues, which are now estimated at 6.67 billion reais, reported Xinhua news agency.

APO is a federal government organ charged with coordinating spending for the Rio 2016 Games.

The final budget is yet to be approved due to uncertainty about the number of projects needed, the figure for which has fallen to 46 from 56 when the second matrix was published, according to APO president Marcelo Pedroso.

“There hasn’t been a decrease,” Pedroso said.

“What has happened is that we have made an improvement. The matrix is a dynamic instrument. It includes a group of projects of the same nature – electric energy – that we decided to join together. We did the same for complimentary facilities.”

Apart from the matrix of responsibilities, an extra 7.4 billion reais have been added to the organising committee budget and 24.6 billion reais to legacy projects.

Meanwhile, APO said 96 percent of the city’s Olympic projects were either underway or completed.

Of the 46 projects that comprise the matrix of responsibilities, 44 have been put to tender while 11 have been concluded.

“The unfinished projects only require a short implementation period,” the report said. (IANS)