From lipsticks and handbags to plastic figures of Buzz Lightyear,almost everything Priscila is selling in her small shop in Sao Paulo's Paraisopolis favela,or slum, has been made in China.'It's just so much cheaper,'the shop owner says,pointing out items that would cost over five times as much if they had been manufactured in Brazil.'It has to be;otherwise lots of people here couldn't afford it.'Further down the hill from Priscila's shop in Paraisopolis's only chain store,Casas Bahia,a household goods retailer, it is the same story.Here most of the cheaper appliances,such as the electric drills,are'Made in China'. As inflation rises in Brazil,it hit 6.44 per cent as of mid-April, only a fraction short of the upper end of the central bank's upper limit of 6.5 per cent,the government of President Dilma Rousseffis facing a dilemma. Cheap imports from Asia help to reduce the price
展开▼
