Everyone in the world highlighted that the Olympic Games comes back to where it is given birth in 2004. Revealing the successful event, the cost of holding this games is 9billion euros. This sum has sealed the public finances and finally cause the growing problem of Greece.

As 9 billion euros represents 5% wealth produced by Greece in a year, it is considered as a huge amount for such a small country. The Olympics blew the bank, and the deficit risen sharply in 2004 by comparing to a declining situation since 1999, which in specific is 7.5% of GDP. In raw data, public finance has hit the bottom year of the Olympics. However we should notice that Greece is now suspected of having hidden some of it debts at the time.

As we can see, in 2004 the tourists have fled Greece and Athens had become a giant construction site. However, there was no tourist boom in 2005 as some predicted, which led to the problem of recovering the expenses. Fortunately, at that time the Greek interest rates were low, near 4.5%.

Greece is not the only organizer of a major sporting event which has made a bad deal. In London, the bill has already exceeded all estimates well before the Games are held. And the city of Montreal, which hosted the Olympics in 1976, repaid its debts last “Olympics” … in 2006.

In the case of Greece, if the Olympics have not helped the public finances, they do not explain alone the current crisis, it may be a cause. As some experts pointed out that “The country has a structural deficit since the early 2000s, well before the Olympics, The Games have had an amplifying effect”.

Reconsidering the Greek problem, while the Olympics have weighed on the expenditure side, the structural problem of Greece is rather on the revenue side and the collection of taxes.

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