Paris Olympics and Paralympics cost taxpayer nearly €6 billion: state body

Straits Times

24-06-2025

The Paris Olympics are most often compared to the Games in London, given their similar geographical setting. PHOTO: AFP
PARIS – The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and Paralympics cost the French state just under €6 billion (S$8.9 billion), the national audit body announced in an 'initial estimate' on June 23.
Government expenditure on the organisation of the two sporting extravaganzas last summer cost €2.77 billion, which included €1.4 billion for security.
A further €3.19 billion were spent on work linked to infrastructure projects.
More than 35,000 members of the security forces were deployed, with the security bill including €315 million paid in bonuses to the police.
The Olympics ran from July 26 to Aug 11, while the Paralympics took place from Aug 28 to Sept 8, with organisers making the most of historic sites in central Paris, either as venues or the backdrop to the events.
The Games were widely hailed as highly successful.
The national audit body also said there would be a 'heightened interest' in the figures because France is also preparing to host the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps.
It is the first time actual figures for France have been announced, although the president of the national audit body, Pierre Moscovici, said in 2024 they would cost the state 'three, maybe four, five billion euros'.
Moscovici, a former French finance minister and European Union Commissioner, said after the release of the figures on June 23 that 'there is really nothing to argue about'.
Until now, only the separate €4.4 billion costs of the local organising committee (COJO), which represented a surplus of €76 million, have been made public.
That money came almost exclusively from private financing and from Solideo, the body responsible for delivering Olympic construction projects, which was in part publicly financed.
A more detailed report will be published in October as other costs are not yet known.
The audit body added that because of a lack of concrete information, the figures did not include 'the positive and negative impact the Games had on economic activity'.
It said, however, that the Games were 'indisputably a success with the public and the media'.
Moscovici said the amount of public spending for the Paris Games 'seems to be more limited than for London 2012'.
The Paris Olympics are most often compared to the Games in London, given their similar geographical setting.
Another report on the legacy of the Games will be published in 2026. AFP
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