High Statistics: France to Include Money From Illegal Drug Trade in GDP

Following a request from the EU authorities, France moves to revise the way its GDP is calculated by including revenues from some illegal activities.

The French national statistics bureau INSEE has announced that money spent on illicit drugs will now be included in GDP calculations as per a request from the EU’s chief statistics office.

Chief of INSEE’s national accounts department Ronan Mahieu said however that this revision would only add "a few billion euros" to France’s GDP which currently stands at about 2.2 trillion euros ($2.7 trillion).

He also insisted that INSEE will not include revenues from prostitution into the GDP calculations, arguing that it’s impossible to determine whether sex workers freely consent to the acts they perform for money.

The money earned from drug use, trafficking and other "related activities" will be calculated according to estimates by specialists and are deemed to be quite accurate.

READ MORE: What a Stash! UK Police Bust Private Jet Carrying £50 Million Worth of Cocaine

Earlier in 2013, Eurostat decreed that the drug trade and prostitution revenues are produced via freely conducted commercial transactions and should therefore be integrated into national accounts.

Several European countries like the UK, Italy and Spain have already complied with Eurostat’s request, resulting in a statistical increase of their respective GDP’s.