With the Spanish economy facing tough times and a projected contraction for the year, winning the FIFA World Cup is said to make a big difference. It could add as much as 0.25 percentage point to annual economic growth as a result of increased consumer spending (happy people spend more).
“Becoming world champion gives a good collective feeling, which leads to more consumer spending, that could have a positive impact on the economy of between 0.25%to 0.5%.”
What could that mean for Spain? Economic expansion instead of contraction.
Who do Spaniards have to thank for it? Paulo the octopus.
And what better way to be thankful than to place his picture on the Spanish national flag and make him the new King of Spain (Juan Carlos I is jealous).
Picture below.
Paulo the octopus, savior and King of Spain. (pic via lolsnaps.com)
And just for the record, I still think the whole “psychic” octopus thing is just naive superstition. The fact that he “guessed” the winner of a match that many times in a row is nothing but an accident, a coincidence. With 50% odds of either choice being the right choice every time, it’s not that huge of a deal to make correct “guesses” a few times in a row.
Silly people.
