Published>Thu, Jun 10 10 11:51 AM
What did it cost the government of South Africa to host the FIFA World Cup?
Below are details of how much the government has spent preparing for the month-long tournament which starts on Friday and the impact this has had on the economy.
ECONOMIC GROWTH BOOST
The government has said the World Cup should add about 0.5 percent to GDP this year.
Analysts are not so optimistic. Forecasts in a Reuters poll in May ranged from 0.1 to 0.7 percent, with a median of 0.3.
The Treasury has said growth this year will likely be above the 2.3 percent it forecast in February and closer to 3 percent after last year's 1.8 percent contraction.
The tourism sector is expected to enjoy a boost from the tournament for years to come. During the rugby World Cup in 1995 tourism numbers shot up 60 percent, increasing by 13 and 7 percent respectively in the following two years.
GOVERNMENT SPENDING FOR EVENT
The government has spent about 40 billion rand ($5.17 billion) since 2006/07 on World Cup-related projects, with 11.7 billion going toward revamping of stadiums and 13.2 billion on transport infrastructure.
The funds came from the national budget and helped to push the fiscal deficit in 2009/10 to 6.7 percent of GDP.
General government borrowing increased to 184.3 billion rand in 2009/10 from 40.2 billion in 2008/09.
The Treasury's expenditure excluded money spent sprucing up airports. Airport Company South Africa has spent about 17 billion rand since 2006 upgrading airports in Cape Town and Johannesburg and building a new one in Durban.
The spending also does not include the 25 billion rand spent on building the country's Gautrain rapid rail network which will link the airport to Johannesburg and its financial hub Sandton and later Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria.
MARKET IMPACT
Increased foreign exchange flows are seen supporting the rand but only slightly.
The tournament comes as international markets are jittery due to European debt problems so any boost from increased foreign exchange earnings will be overshadowed by worries about the global economic recovery.
On the local bourse, wine, spirits and beer companies such as Distel and SABMiller outperformed the All-share index over the past year partly in anticipation of a World Cup boost.
Imperial, which has a car rental business, has seen its price go up by 60.5 percent in that period.
TOURIST NUMBERS, SPEND
South Africa expects about 370,000 foreign visitors during the event, lower than initial estimates of 450,000.
Visitors should spend about 8.8 billion rand during the tournament and -- together with spending by soccer's world governing body FIFA, other officials and teams -- the economy will receive a 13 billion rand cash injection, accounting firm Grant Thornton wrote in a study.
JOB CREATION
Construction ahead of the tournament created thousands of jobs, most of which disappeared as the preparations wound up. Employment in the sector fell 9.3 percent to 1.085 million in the first quarter of 2010, compared with the same period last year.
Source: Web Search
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