INSTANT GIANT
Though founded in 1554, São Paulo languished for more than 300 years, until a coffee boom hit in the 1880s. Immigrants from Europe and, notably, Japan, and their descendants made the city the largest in South America, one that produces about half of Brazil's industrial goods.
ECONOMYFinance, automobile manufacturing, textiles, food processing, metal products, electrical equipment, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, furniture, computers.Text source:
National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition, 2004
