The costs and financing of Expo.01 and Expo.02 remained a major issue right up to their dismantling.

The report of the Control Committee of the Council of States of 27.03.2001 describes the problems in the preparation and organisation of the national exhibition (Expo.01), particularly with regard to costs and financing, as follows:

The financial difficulties of Expo.01 were essentially related to the chosen concept. The details of the exhibition were to be developed in a creative, dynamic way over time. The infrastructure projects were also in a development and selection phase. Planning was based on the simultaneous engineering method, i.e. the projects were developed by the directorates in parallel and not on a timeline. There was also a lack of reliable information on the willingness of private sponsors and the expected entrance fees. Under these conditions, reliable budgeting was of course not possible in the first phase. The actual financial requirements only emerged when the exhibition was finalised. In October 1998, the office of the Strategic Committee learnt that sponsorship contributions of CHF 300 million were required (only CHF 175 million had been pledged, most of it in the form of letters of intent). This was the first time that people were surprised that the figures could not be determined more precisely at the beginning. 

According to the assessment of the Swiss Federal Audit Office, from today's perspective, a reasonable overview of the financial situation should have been possible for the first time at the time of the milestone at the end of April 1999. In fact, but not definitively, the financial requirements were clarified with Hayek Engineering's assessment of the situation in September 1999. Even if today, i.e. at Expo.02, the financial requirements can be reasonably surveyed, there are still uncertainties, mainly due to the uncertain income. This concept, which was chosen by politicians and concretised by the association, posed particular challenges for the financial management due to the unclear income and expenditure, which the management was unable to meet due to a lack of relevant experience.

^{From the report of the Control Committee of the Council of States of 27.03.2001 - Problems in the preparation and organisation of the 2001 National Exhibition (Expo.01)} 

The income from admission tickets did not cover the costs of the national exhibition of CHF 1'601 million. Expo.02 relied to a large extent on public funding and to a lesser extent on funding from industry and visitors.

The initial situation: one federal franc for one economic franc - January 2000

The initial budget for Expo.02 in January 2000 included costs totalling CHF 1'449 million. The budget was financed almost equally by contributions from the public sector (CHF 445 million) and the private sector (CHF 454 million). Admission income totalled CHF 296 million and operating income CHF 206 million.

The deficit of CHF 39 million in the budget was offset by a deficit guarantee of CHF 359 million. CHF 320 million of the deficit guarantee was therefore earmarked as a risk reserve, particularly in the event of cost overruns. However, the risk reserve was also calculated on the basis of a ten per cent loss of visitors.

The deficit guarantee and risk reserve were chosen because Expo.02 had no own funds, no reserves in the budget and no comparable event.

The provisional final accounts - November 2002

On the cost side, the provisional final account stood at CHF 1'601 million after Expo.02 had to integrate additional costs of CHF 1 million (0.1 per cent) from the deficit guarantee and extra-budgetary expenses of CHF 110 million into its budget without affecting the deficit.

Expo.02 anticipated a need for provisions of CHF 30 million for the final realisation of the national exhibition as well as additional costs of CHF 20 million due to VAT reclaims by the federal government.

The subsequent conversion of the loans into subsidies and the lower level of income meant that Expo.02 had to return some of the VAT refunds to the Confederation in the final accounts.

According to the provisional final accounts, sponsorship income recognised in the budget now amounted to CHF 262 million. Due to the events in 2001 and 2002, this figure was reduced by CHF 196 million. Gross admission income totalled CHF 183 million (net CHF 165 million). The shortfall of CHF 115 million - excluding the variable costs of CHF 18 million - was therefore CHF 85 million above the risks provided for in the deficit guarantee. The remaining income still totalled CHF 63 million gross (CHF 58 million net).

Income was already significantly reduced in autumn 2001. Expo.02 had set aside CHF 2 million for bad debt losses. Offsetting the expenditure side, there was also extra-budgetary income of CHF 110 million on the revenue side. Income totalled CHF 1'038 million.

The deficit in the provisional final accounts thus totalled CHF 563 million. With the supplement of CHF 90 million approved by Parliament in December 2002, the deficit was offset by financial resources of CHF 568 million from the federal government.

The cost components of Expo.02

The most important cost elements of Expo.02 were construction and infrastructure (CHF 447 million) and the programme (exhibitions, events) (CHF 448 million). Central services totalled CHF 419 million, of which CHF 120 million had already been spent on Expo.01. The operation of Expo.02, including the run-up, cost CHF 209 million, and levies to the Swiss Confederation (and banks CHF 3 million) totalled CHF 78 million.

The final accounts - May 2008

The Swiss Confederation approved commitment credits totalling CHF 928 million for the 2001/2002 national exhibition. Of this amount, CHF 898 million was paid out to Expo.02.

This CHF 30 million difference, together with the repayment of CHF 2.5 million from the federal projects and the repayment of CHF 29 million from Expo.02, reduced the total expenditure of Expo.02 by CHF 61.5 million.

In the final accounts, expenditure totalled CHF 1'539.5 million and income CHF 1'038 million. The deficit thus totalled CHF 501.5 million

The Confederation's total commitment totalled CHF 836.5 million, minus the Expo.02 contributions to the Confederation of CHF 75 million, the total commitment was reduced to CHF 761.5 million.