statistics is a powerful tool. Who has the power of statistical definitions can change our picture of reality. From 1 September, there will be such a change. Then the new “European System of National Accounts’ (ESA) 2010 comes into force. This EU Directive brings several new features, the nominal gross domestic product (GDP) increase – and vice versa let the debt ratios in the EU countries fall. The Directive is expected to come highly indebted countries just right. “Behind this are political interests,” said a senior member of the Budget Committee of the Bundestag. “This statistical effect plays especially the countries with high debt levels in the cards.”
Author: Philip Plickert, born 1979 editor in the economy, responsible for “The Economist”
attempts to inflate the statistics dramatically, there have been in the euro zone. Greece was in 2006 – before the outbreak of the debt crisis – inflate its GDP statistics by 25 percent by imputed a much larger shadow economy. The EU rejected this. Athens could increase GDP by 9.6 percent unique at the time. But this case shows that explosiveness is in statistics changes.
The Federal Statistical Office vehemently denies that behind the new ESA 2010′m a political intention to inflate the GDP. In fact, the dimensions are moderate. However, the German statistics office has resisted years ago violently against the amendments to the ESA. The statistician in Wiesbaden criticized in particular the accounting for arms purchases as “investments” that increase the GDP. “We doubt it very, whether military weapons whose main purpose is generally known as the destruction of values that are to be considered as capital formation,” wrote Walter Radermacher, then Vice President of the Bureau of Statistics, in a letter that the FAZ present, at the head of the UN Statistics Authority. The German statisticians were outvoted in the international fora and add now the EU requirements.
Three controversial areas regulate these new: Prostitution is the first time in all EU countries as an economic sector considered positive for the gross domestic product; yet it was only in some, including Germany, the case because it is legal there. The Wiesbaden statisticians have evaluated scientific studies on the extent of prostitution. On this basis they estimated in an internal document of 2013 the turnover of the estimated 400,000 prostitutes (including 5 percent of men) to 14.6 billion euros. Minus the various inputs of the rent in brothels to clothing and condoms, the statisticians come to a “gross value added” of 7.3 billion euros in the sex industry. This represents almost one third percent of GDP in Germany. This week, the agency will publish new figures for GDP including prostitution. “We will make a very conservative estimate,” says Norbert Räth, responsible for the GDP calculation department head.
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