Thanks to the European Football Championship the value of the Polish GDP is to increase by 26.6 billion zloty following from preliminary data obtained in a survey conducted by a team of economists at the request of the Polish government. This result will be spread over time until 2020.
„That’s a great deal. For instance, according to different calculations, after Poland jointed the EU our GDP rose by about 5%,” says Jakub Borowski, economist from the Warsaw School of Economy and Invest Bank and co-author of the survey. The impact of the event in the year in which it will be organised will be relatively modest. It is estimated that the value of tourist traffic connected with the tournament will amount to 438 million zloty in 2012.
„In 2004 Portugal organised the same tournament. Its short-term influence was modest but we have been drawing profits from it until this day. Our country has a better image, which, among other things, significantly increases the number of customers,” says Luis Felipe Pereira, co-organizer of Euro 2004.
The impact on Polish economy estimated by economists will be achieved if all the planned projects are completed on time. Yesterday, during the Economic Forum in Krynica, Minister of Sport and Tourism, Mirosław Drzewiecki, gave assurances that the plan would be realised. „The only thing we cannot guarantee for the time of the tournament is the weather and the state of the Polish national football team,” said Drzewiecki.
Altogether, 70.2 billion zloties is to be invested in projects connected with Euro 2012 before the tournament and most of these funds are to be swallowed up by infrastructure development and modernisation. „All these investments would have been completed by 2020, anyway, and the positive Polish economic growth is due to their acceleration,” adds Jakub Borowski.
