The FIFA World Cup starts a week from today (Thursday) and the host country Russia is hoping that the tournament will fire up the country's sputtering economy. Will the World Cup score a goal for the Russian economy? Guan Xin tells us more.

The 2018 FIFA world cup begins on June, 14th. Hundreds of thousands of soccer fans are expected to descend on Russia. Business owners are hoping the massive influx of international tourists could set their cash registers ringing, non-stop.

MAXIM ZAKHAROV RESTAURANT MANAGER "Just like any other person who has a business in Moscow right now, everyone wants to earn money, particularly during the World Cup. Hotels and restaurants alike. We haven't raised prices. On the contrary, We have some generous offers for our guests."

NURAIM RAKHMANZHANOVA SHOP ASSISTANT "The majority of foreigners like football-themed Russian nesting dolls: Ronaldo, Messi. We also have many other souvenirs, trinkets, magnets, t-shirts. T-shirts are the most popular among customers."

Over 600 thousand overseas tourists are expected to visit Russia during the World Cup. Combined with 700 thousand Russians who will also attend matches, hotels and restaurants in the game cities are already seeing plenty of business.

A study by the McKinsey consultancy estimates that the overall impact of the World Cup on Russia will be around 15 billion US dollars. That far exceeds the impact of previous World Cups in Brazil, South Africa, and Germany. The money sounds big but it is mostly investment in stadiums and transport infrastructure. And its contribution to the GDP is less than 0.2 percent. Those investments didn't help Russia avoid a recession in 2015 and 2016. And overall growth is only expected to reach less than 2 percent in the coming years.

IGOR NIKOLAYEV, DIR. FBK STRATEGIC ANALYSIS INSTITUTE "You can't assume that just through organising events like this you can solve all the problems of infrastructure, transport and other industries in the whole country. It's wrong. It can play a certain role but we shouldn't exaggerate the significance of such events."

Nevertheless, shop-owners and travel agencies are happy to see that their sales are already gone up. In some cases, the figure has jumped roughly 50 percent from an ordinary summer. Officials hope the business boom brought by the World Cup could last a little longer.