Official figures expected to show Britain's economic recovery even stronger than previously thought, with illegal drugs and prostitution, which represent 0.7pc of GDP, fuelling faster growth
£5.3bn of the UK's gross domestic product has been attributed to prostitution
Britain's recent recovery was stronger than previously thought, official figures are likely to show this week, with the inclusion of prostitution and illegal drugs expected to boost the economy by around £10bn a year.
Experts expect a “substantial” upgrade of UK growth over the past 18 months as part of a major accounting overhaul that will bring Britain in line with European standards.
Revisions by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) up to the end of 2012 have already shown the UK’s recession was shorter and shallower than feared.
Figures this month showed the economy shrank by 6pc in the wake of the financial crisis and not the previous estimate of 7.2pc.
“The ONS has already announced that these changes will cause the year-on-year growth in real GDP between 2008 and 2012 to be revised by an average of 0.5pc per year, and we expect that recent growth rates will also be revised substantially higher,” said Michael Saunders, chief UK economist at Citi. Unrevised data currently show that the economy grew by 1.7pc in 2013, and 0.8pc per quarter in the first six months of this year. ...MORE
