NationStates Jolt Archive

Greece is facing a massive budget deficit as it tries to absorb the cost of the Olympic Games.

The expected 7bn euro ($8.6bn; £4.8bn) burden means the national deficit is set to hit 5.3% in 2004, said Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

He said the previous government was to blame, for concealing the extent of Greece's economic troubles.

"A large part of Olympic, social and other spending was not written up in the budget," he said.

"The real deficit was not recorded... The public debt exceeds even the most pessimistic of estimations."

The Games is set to be the most expensive in the modern Olympics' 100-year history.

Not only did Athens have to sustain the usual cost of trying to outdo previous host cities.

The heightened fears following 9/11 meant that Athens was faced with a bill for security which was five times higher than that of Sydney in 2000.

In addition, much of the building work on facilities was only completed in a last-minute - and expensive - rush, in some cases just hours before the Games began.

The expected 5.3% budget shortfall is almost twice the 3% allowed by the European Union.

Total cumulative debt, Mr Karamanlis said, was as high as 112% of GDP or 184bn euros - or 50,000 euros for each Greek household.

Before March's election, the previous Socialist government had predicted a 1.2% deficit, with total debt of under 100% of GDP.

That was nothing short of deliberately misleading, he said.

"Social policy was done with borrowed cash, military spending did not show up on the budget, debts were created in secret," Mr Karamanlis said in a speech which traditionally sets the economic agenda for the year ahead.

But he said there was hope ahead.

Privatisation, new investment and pro-competitive laws were planned, but there was to be no shock treatment.

Mr Karamanlis promised "consultations, not surprise attacks - dialogue, not confrontation."

Source: BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3649268.stm)

Well, this doesn't surprise me seeing how many seats were empty at the Olympics this year... is it just me, or do people not care about the camaraderie of sportsmanship and competition anymore?

Greece is facing a massive budget deficit as it tries to absorb the cost of the Olympic Games.

The expected 7bn euro ($8.6bn; £4.8bn) burden means the national deficit is set to hit 5.3% in 2004, said Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

He said the previous government was to blame, for concealing the extent of Greece's economic troubles.

"A large part of Olympic, social and other spending was not written up in the budget," he said.

"The real deficit was not recorded... The public debt exceeds even the most pessimistic of estimations."

The Games is set to be the most expensive in the modern Olympics' 100-year history.

Not only did Athens have to sustain the usual cost of trying to outdo previous host cities.

The heightened fears following 9/11 meant that Athens was faced with a bill for security which was five times higher than that of Sydney in 2000.

In addition, much of the building work on facilities was only completed in a last-minute - and expensive - rush, in some cases just hours before the Games began.

The expected 5.3% budget shortfall is almost twice the 3% allowed by the European Union.

Total cumulative debt, Mr Karamanlis said, was as high as 112% of GDP or 184bn euros - or 50,000 euros for each Greek household.

Before March's election, the previous Socialist government had predicted a 1.2% deficit, with total debt of under 100% of GDP.

That was nothing short of deliberately misleading, he said.

"Social policy was done with borrowed cash, military spending did not show up on the budget, debts were created in secret," Mr Karamanlis said in a speech which traditionally sets the economic agenda for the year ahead.

But he said there was hope ahead.

Privatisation, new investment and pro-competitive laws were planned, but there was to be no shock treatment.

Mr Karamanlis promised "consultations, not surprise attacks - dialogue, not confrontation."

Source: BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3649268.stm)

Well, this doesn't surprise me seeing how many seats were empty at the Olympics this year... is it just me, or do people not care about the camaraderie of sportsmanship and competition anymore?
I think people do care about the Olympics. Alas, most cannot afford visiting the games where they happen and the increasing commercialization of such events is a turn off. Not to forget the fear of terrorism or the generally pessimist world climate with wars raging during the Olympics.

I think people are turned off nowadays by commercialism as mentioned already...and considering I was going to the Games and cancelled because of security concerns, I am not surprised a lot of seats were empty. However, once has to keep in mind that when I was planning the trip last year, all the crappy hotels were overpriced to gauge tourists and the half-decent ones were all booked by the International Olympic Committee and their friends...talk about patronage...and they were booked years in advance..I thought hotels can't do that...and I also thought that the Olympics were for the people not for those fat corporate types.....I guess I thought wrong.