NOS News•
The French government has spent almost 6 billion euros for the Olympic Games that took place in Paris last summer. That is stated in a first official estimate of the French Court of Auditors.
The Court of Audit reports that the expenditure for the organization only includes 2.77 billion euros. In addition, an additional 3.19 billion euros has been spent on infrastructure.
The comments of the organizers of Paris 2024 are also included in the report of the Court of Auditors. They dispute the estimates and state that some expenses cannot be attributed to the Games.
Economic Benefits
Tony Estanguet, former head of the organizing committee, says that the Court of Audit has failed “to investigate the only question that could provide meaningful information for the public debate”. According to him, the question is how much would have been saved if the Games were not held in Paris.
“It cannot be denied that this amount would be much lower than the 6 billion that the Court of Audit currently mentions,” he says. “The organizing committee estimates that this amount does not exceed 2 billion euros, while the expected economic benefits of the Games are said to include three to five times that amount.”
Missing data
The provisional report of the Court of Audit is based on data available on March 31, 2025. The researchers say that they have not been able to analyze the positive or negative effects on economic activity or tax revenues due to missing data.
The publication of the estimate of the Court of Audit is related to the Winter Olympics of 2030 that have also been assigned to France.
