Prostitution and drugs add €9 billion to Spain's 2013 GDP

(www.eurasianet.org)

MADRID – The National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE) announced last week that Spain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by €26,193 million in 2013 because new regulations from Brussels order the inclusion of illegal activities. This includes all illegal activity, including the ‘profits’ from drug trafficking (0.50% or €5,246 million, prostitution (0.35% or €) and people trafficking, illegal gambling and contraband (largely of tobacco products, according to the report). It was calculated that this added close to €9bn, yet is only 0.87% of the total, which adds up to €1,049bn. However, the inclusion of illegal activities has less of an impact on the increase than; the largest item is the inclusion of R&D (in Spanish I+D+i), which is up by 1.17% since 2010 (the base year used for calculations) and is now considered an investment expense rather than an intermediate expense as it was until last year. Military armament represents 0.17% of the total. Spain’s 2013 PNG is therefore €1,049bn. (See also Sex and Drugs to add to Europe's murky GDP figures.)