London ( CNN ) -- With the World Cup in 2014 , the Olympics two years later and large discoveries of oil boosting the economy , Brazilians could be excused for looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses . The world 's party country -- home to samba dance and Carnival -- is enjoying an economic cocktail of low unemployment and easy consumer credit , propelling many Brazilians into the country 's burgeoning middle class . But while tens of millions of people have been hauled out of poverty , questions are being raised around the risks of a consumer-driven boom . In the last decade , effective anti-poverty policies such as `` Bolsa Familia '' -- translated as Family Bag -- introduced by former President Lula and carried on by incumbent Dilma Rousseff , have helped transform Brazil 's workforce and increase the minimum wage . Read more : Building on 'BRICS ' : The next emerging economies . `` Brazil used to be one of the most unequal countries in the world , '' Naercio Mezenes Filho , professor of economics at Brazillian business school , Insper , told CNN . He added : `` Unskilled labor is in short supply right now because the youngest have remained in school compared to the past . '' Brazil -- with a population of 190 million people scattered across its Atlantic coast -- is famed for its billionaire tycoons like mining magnate Eike Batista or banker Jorge Paulo Lemann , Brazil 's richest man . Read more : Rising Brazil tackles immigration question . And while wealth disparity remains an issue in Latin America 's largest economy , Brazil is beginning to see a change in the tide , according to Jens Arnold , head of the Brazil desk at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development . He told CNN that Brazil 's population is seeing a new trend as some of the poorest 10 % in the country shake off poverty . Read more : Building on 'BRICS ' : The next emerging economies . Arnold said : `` More people have access to better paying jobs ... [ and ] living standards are coming up , particularly for those who are below the poverty line . '' Could the boom bust ? Many Brazilians who once inhabited the gang-ridden shanty towns , known as favelas , now have the disposable income to shop for aspirational products , from cars to DVD players . And that 's not all . Robust and highly-capitalized banks are offering easy lines of credit to Brazilian consumers who find themselves in regular employment . Read more : Is Brazil ready to take sporting center stage ? Edmund Amann , senior lecturer in social sciences at Manchester University , told CNN that Brazil 's economy is experiencing a consumer-borrowing model of growth . `` There 's been quite a surge in domestic consumption , '' he said . `` That has centered on consumer durables , not least automobiles , '' Amann added . Store cards are the most popular way to shop in Brazil , allowing customers to pay for goods in regular installments rather than meeting the full price up front . A study by McKinsey & Company in 2012 showed that 40 % of consumers said they shop more in stores that extend credit , six times more than the U.S. data from the Central Bank of Brazil in 2009 indicated that use of retail cards increased over 100 % from 2004 to 2008 . Read more : Brazil competes with China , India to invest in Africa . Amann said although the increase in household debt is unlikely to cause a bubble , there is a chance investors could be spooked with the crisis in Europe and the U.S. still causing global pain . But Amann noted Brazil 's economy is protected by a buoyant commodity market and said of consumer appetite : `` Financial education is important ... for many people , this will be their first experience of a formal financial arrangement where they have a bank account and have access to lending . '' While Naercio believes inflation risk -- currently at 6.5 % in Brazil -- is one of the biggest threats to Brazil , with easy lending from public-sector banks hitting consumers if the economy fails to grow . However , `` I do n't think there is any chance we will see what happened in the U.S. and Europe in the property crash , '' he said . A bright future . In 2001 Brazil was included in the term BRIC , an acronym coined by then-Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill , to describe the next big emerging markets of Brazil , Russia , India and China . Brazil -- the world 's sixth largest economy -- is beginning to see its mining and commodities sectors bear fruit , particularly oil and iron ore. And despite Brazil 's disappointing economic data for the last two years relative to its high-growth brethren , Arnold believes Brazil has a bright future ahead . He said : `` We expect this to come back to potential growth rates and we expect a recovery to be taking place in this year . '' Amman told CNN he was `` no doomsayer '' on the Brazilian economy but added that the country needed to move to a `` Chinese model '' of investment to kick-start growth . Amann said : `` The biggest single risk the economy faces is a collapse on commodity prices ... we probably are approaching the limit of a consumer borrowing based growth model . ''
With the World Cup and Olympics on the way , Brazilians could be excused for wearing rose-tinted glasses . But Brazil is not just a country with an Olympic legacy to uphold. Wealth is increasing and credit becoming easier to obtain . The risks of it falling into credit boom and bust are offset by regulated housing market .