LONDON – Paris’ “lean” Olympics are unlikely to do any lasting damage to France’s finances, thanks to 95 per cent of its venues either already being built or needing only minor refurbishment, credit rating agency S&P Global estimated in a report on March 11.

The near €9 billion (S$13.1 billion) budget to host the July 26-Aug 11 Games is comfortably below those of Tokyo, Rio and London and only a fraction of the record US$52.7 billion (S$70 billion) Beijing is estimated to have spent in 2008.