South Korea claims cool Winter Olympics profit

As the England World Cup 2018 bid team announced npower as a sponsor this week, they suggested the Cup could be worth a £3bn cash injection to the British economy. A tidy sum, but a bagatelle compared to the 20.2 trillion Won (£12bn) economist Lee Dong-hun estimated as the fiscal value of South Korea's Winter Olympics performance in the latest JoongAng Daily . Lee believes the country's success, a fifth place in the medals table topped off by Kim Yu-na's spectacular gold in the figure skating, translates financially to represent 2% of South Korea's gross domestic product. The figures, which are exceptionally high and hard to verify, are broken down into approximately £1bn in national promotions, £485m from the improvement of corporate brand recognition and £9bn in increased corporate revenues. He also estimates that the Games have been worth £2bn in indirect effects, including enhancing public morale – an important factor in a country constantly measuring itself against its northern neighbour. Lee refers to this as promoting the Korea "brand" that will boost Pyeongchang's bid to host the 2018 Olympics, saying that: "Korea realised its DNA of success once again." It was a good week all round for the brand. Park Ji-sung scored for Manchester United against Milan in the Champions League, teenaged golfer Noh Seung-wul won the Malaysian Open, and on Thursday Kyodo News announced that the second head-to-head golf team event against Japan would take place in Seoul in September, in what could turn into the Asian Ryder Cup.