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Brazil to provide financial aid to Rio state for Olympics

Xinhua, June 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazil's federal government on Tuesday approved substantial financial aid to the Rio de Janeiro state to help cover expenses in the upcoming Summer Olympics.

The federal government will allocate 2.9 billion reais (853 million U.S. dollars) to Rio state, which declared a state of calamity last week due to financial crisis stemming from its preparations for the Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games.

The money should be used to help in the public security expenses during the Olympics, according to a government decree.

Chief of Staff Eliseu Padilha said the federal and state governments met on Monday to discuss the financial aid, to which all 27 governors agreed.

"Isn't the risk of failure bad for Brazil? So, a national effort was made. The 27 governors agreed that the union should solve Rio's imminent problem," Padilha said.

Rio's interim Governor Francisco Dornelles on Friday declared the state of crisis, after public servants have not been paid for months. Endi