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Brazilian towns cancel carnival parties amid economic crisis

Xinhua, January 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

As Brazil is feeling the pinch from a deepening economic crisis, at least 48 towns across the country have decided to cancel carnival festivities due to lack of resources.

Many of the towns affected by economic woes are in the northern states of Paraiba, Rio Grande do Norte and Tocantins, the central states of Goias and Rondonia and the southern states of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, according to web portal G1.

The Brazilian economy shrank 3.8 percent in 2015 as the price of oil and other raw materials that Brazil exports plunged. The International Monetary Fund said it expected Brazil's economy to contract 3.5 percent this year and remain stagnant in 2017. It shrank by 3.8 percent in 2015, according to the fund.

In the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil's richest and most populated, several towns have also suspended carnival activities for fear of further spread of the dengue fever.

According to earlier reports by local media, the country registered 1.58 million dengue cases from January to the first week of December in 2015, and the toll from the disease reached 839, the highest since 1982. Endi