Greece hit with €6bn Olympic bill

THE COST of the Athens Olympics will be 30% higher than initially expected, reaching €6bn, Greece's finance minister revealed yesterday.

The conservative Greek government, which swept to power in March after 11 years of socialist rule, had previously hinted the Olympics would considerably exceed the original €4.6bn budget, but had not said what the final bill would be.

"There will be significant overruns in the Olympics, we will reach €6bn," Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis told a parliamentary committee.