The biggest sporting event in the world hit Rio de Janeiro in August 2016, bringing plenty of trading opportunities with it.
Find out what impact the games had, what our analysts had to say about them, or get more information on Brazilian markets below.
The Rio 2016 Olympic Games opening ceremony took place on 5 August. It came at a controversial time for Brazil, which was facing recession for the third successive year and political upheaval in the form of President Dilma Rousseff’s impending impeachment.
Despite those problems, Brazil managed an impressive seven gold medals – its highest ever tally in a summer Olympics. Great Britain also had a strong year, overtaking China to finish second in the medal table behind the US.
Much media attention was placed on Brazil’s economy ahead of the games, especially after the host country committed an $11.1 billion investment into them before the opening ceremony even got underway, according to the Council of the Americas.
And that figure didn’t even account for the substantial investment made on upgrading existing infrastructure, maintaining security and avoiding health risks.
When Rio 2016 started, Brazil’s economy was not in the same rude health as when it was awarded the games. This led to significant fears about whether it could afford such a major expenditure.
On the other hand, several analysts – including Leroy Lawrence from Quadron Capital – thought that Brazil could use the Olympics to stage an economic comeback. Watch his interview 'Will Brazil ever benefit from the 2016 Olympics' to learn more.
Brazil’s economy may have been in the midst of its worst recession for 25 years as Rio prepared for the games, but it still offered a compelling area for investment. Part of the reason for this was possibility of a new government, which materialised when Dilma Rousseff was impeached shortly after Rio 2016.
But what were our analysts saying about the games at the time? Find out here:
Brazil’s currency and equities rally on nascent economic improvement
For the athletes competing at an Olympic games, a gold medal means much more than the commodity it is made of. But what is the relative and market value of the precious metal in a medal?
Each Olympic gold medal has to contain six grams of gold, and the constant fluctuations in commodity prices – not to mention the impact of forex movement – can mean major leaps in the value of a medal from one games to the next. At the outset of Rio 2016, we took a look at which Olympians have benefitted most from the changing value of the gold in their medals.
But the differences in gold medal values don’t end there, as the relative value of a gold medal can also vary hugely from country to country thanks to currency values and price-purchasing power (PPP). So after the Olympic games, we analysed which countries did best in Rio when it came to the relative value of their gold medal haul.
Olympics 2016: what's a gold medal worth?
And on relative medal value here:
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