Rio de Janeiro

An impoverished neighborhood located in the western area of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro has opened a new community bank which will issue its own currency in order to trigger local economic development, Press TV reports.

The poor neighborhood, known as the “City of God”, opened the City of God Communitarian Bank on September 15.

A view of the impoverished City of God neighborhood located in the
western area of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro

The bank is to issue its own community currency, only available for locally enrolled businesses that aim to engage city residents in buying products and services within the community.

“If we empower the economically marginalized grassroots network and build social capital, poor people will leave poverty,” said Brazil's National Secretary of the Solidarity Economy Paul Singer.

Under the solidarity economic principles, the bank will employ multi-disciplinary sustainability, “a practice that continues to rise in the whole world,” Singer concluded.

The City of God branch, established by former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2003, was created by the Brazilian Network of Communitarian Banks.

Approximately 40,000 people live in the community which became famous after being portrayed in the 2002 film City of God.
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