The city is home to a solid infrastructure with an important seaport, an international airport, a domestic airport, two subway lines, several inter-municipal railway lines, and a public transportation network of hundreds of bus lines and thousands of buses.

Rio is the headquarter of major private and state financial, telecommunication, and entertainment companies. The recent discovery of oil in the Campos basin resulted in Rio being the main base of several Brazilian and foreign energy, oil, and gas companies. In fact, Brazil's subsalt region, a huge deep-sea area of oil reserves under a thick layer of salt, could hold up to 100 billion barrels - providing a huge demand for rio-based services.

The city is a leading financial and banking center, and Rio's investment activities include real estate development, funds management, and the second largest stock market in Brazil. Created in 1845, the Rio de Janeiro stock exchange, was the first stock market to be established in Brazil, trading today exclusively government securities.