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Rediff.com  » Business » Royal wedding: UK economy to lose $50 billion
This article was first published 12 years ago

Royal wedding: UK economy to lose $50 billion

Last updated on: April 26, 2011 16:16 IST

Image: A Royal Wedding stamp from the tiny Pacific island of Niue.
Photographs: Reuters.
It has emerged that, Prince Williams and his fiancee Kate Middleton's royal wedding could lead to potential loss of Britain's economy by $50 billion.

Prince Charles and Diana's wedding had cost the exchequer around 30 million pounds.

Royal wedding: UK economy to lose $50 billion

Image: A wedding cake featuring Prince William and his fiancee Catherine Middleton.
Photographs: Kieran Doherty/Reuters.
The royals receive a government grant of about $13 million a year to cover expenses. But the public cost of the wedding far exceeds that.

Extra policing and overtime alone is estimated at more than $35 million.

Royal wedding: UK economy to lose $50 billion

Image: The top tier of a replica of the Prince Charles and Lady Diana wedding cake.
Photographs: Kieran Doherty/Reuters.
When all the people are celebrating, they're not working. And because the wedding holiday falls between two long holiday weekends in England, you can take 11 days off by burning only three days of vacation time.

Royal wedding: UK economy to lose $50 billion

Image: A pupil paints a picture of Britain's Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton at a school.
Photographs: Kham/Reuters.
"Invariably that leads to a loss of output," CBS News quoted Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec, as saying.

Royal wedding: UK economy to lose $50 billion

Image: Passenger Han Liu holds up a royal wedding commemorative Oyster card.
Photographs: Luke MacGregor/Reuters.
"So, in terms of the impact on GDP in the economy we're suggesting that it could knock something like a quarter percent off growth," Shaw added.

Royal wedding: UK economy to lose $50 billion

Image: Confectioner Florian Baecker prepares cakes for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Photographs: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters.

However, some businesses expect to benefit from lakhs of visitors, who would come to see the wedding.

Source: ANI