Nissan Still Main Sponsor of Olympic Games

It's great to see that huge companies are still supporting the Rio Olympics 2016 even though the media has been filled with negatives about the games so far. We hope that all athletes competing, especially British ones have great success at the Olympics & that the media turns to positives about the olympic games!

The chief executive of Nissan says it was "the right decision" to sponsor the Rio Olympics, despite a slump in Brazilian car sales.

When Nissan took the decision to back the Games, the Brazilian market was booming with sales of 3.8 million vehicles a year.

But a recession has seen that sales figure tumble to 2 million a year.

The company's goal with the Olympics sponsorship is to help increase its market-share in Brazil from 3% to 5%, he said.

The 31st Olympic Games officially started in Rio on Friday with the opening ceremony at the Maracana Stadium.

As part of its sponsorship, Nissan is supplying 5,000 cars for the Games and the Brazilian Olympic team to use.

The company has used Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt in its adverts since 2012.

Global outlook

Mr Ghosn says the global car market will continue to be sluggish until 2019, with growth of just 1% next year.

He expects the US car market to be strong, and sees Europe continuing to recover "even though it will be impacted by Brexit".

The UK economy will see some contraction due to Brexit, "not because there is anything wrong with the UK, but because markets hate uncertainty," Mr Ghosn said.

The company will be keeping a close eye on future negotiations over the UK's exit from the European Union.

Nissan employs 6,700 staff at its plant in Sunderland in northern England.

"We are reasonably optimistic at the end of the day common sense will prevail from both sides," Mr Ghosn said.