Minimum cost of living

Absolutely not, especially in larger cities, for a variety of reasons.

First of all, shared accommodations are almost unheard of in Brazil. You'll be extremely hard pressed to find another student (especially a Brazilian) willing to share an apartment.

Taxes are extremely high in Brazil and EVERYTHING is taxed, even food. Here you'll pay 22% on average on everything at the supermarket, some products up to 70%.

Rents are high and if that's not enough in most cases the tenant is responsible to pay the IPTU (property tax) because the laws here allow the property owner to pass that along to the tenant. Some places you'll also need to pay a condominium fee, which in some cases could be as much as the rent if not more.

If you want to live in a small kitchenette (unfurnished) you will be looking at paying around R$500 just for the rent in most larger Brazilian cities.

For Cost of Living information you should check out www.numbeo.com  all you need to do is type the name of the city and country into the search field and you'll get a broad overview of prices.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team