Prostitution and Illegal Drugs now contributes to the UK GDP

I had a little chuckle reading some the papers yesterday concerning changes to the way our government measures the UK economy. 

New rules from Europe mean that the National Accounts now have to include illegal activities such as prostitution and illegal drug manufacture, importation and use, some of which are not prohibited in some EU countries.  For example prostitution is legal in Netherlands, Greece, Germany, (under licence), Hungary and Austria*

I suppose it’s all about the 27 countries calculating their economies in the same way – a sort of level playing field, which in some cases includes playing away! 

The Office for National Statistics has had to estimate the figures, of course, and, combined, these illegal activities add around £10bn to our GDP (£5.3 for prostitution and £4.4bn for illegal drugs)

ONS Source: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/mro/news-release/national-accounts--progress-report-on-this-year-s-changes/national-accounts-nr.html

*Data Source Wikipedia