How drug dealers and prostitutes are adding £10bn a year to the UK economy

Based on 2009 prices, the ONS has estimated prostitution will add £5.3 billion to GDP, while drugs will boost the economy by £4.4 billion.

17:11 30 May 2014

Statisticians have revealed that drug dealers and prostitutes will help boost UK economy by around £10bn a year. It is claimed that both activities are worth 0.7per cent of GDP, which is the same as accommodation services, agriculture and the publishing industry. 

 

European Union rules mean the Office for National Statistics will for the first time include illegal activities when calculating the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). 

 

A spokeswoman for women's charity Eaves said: "[Women's charity] Eaves is surprised and saddened that illegal activities, crime, abuse, suffering and violence would be considered as part of the GDP.

 

"Given that the entry routes to prostitution and the barriers to exiting prostitution are known to commonly include childhood sexual violence, domestic violence, neglect, abuse, poverty, destitution, coercion and addiction - it is humiliating and frankly frightening to see such human tragedy financially valued and counted as 'productive'.

 

"It is just one more way in which human lives, women's lives in particular, are devalued, objectified and commodified and another step on the road to the normalisation of pimps as businessmen."