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Prostitution,
drug trafficking and other illegal activities have finally been included in
Spain’s gross domestic product, boosting it by 9 billion euros according to the
latest statistics, RT reports.
Latest data from the National Statistics
Institute (INE) reveals the drug trade, prostitution, illegal weapon sales and
gambling contributed some €9 billion, or 0.87 percent of country’s total GDP in
2013. The new figures show that drug trafficking comprised 0.5 percent of GDP
while illegal sex trade made up 0.35 percent of the new total.
Overall,
the recalculated figures increased Spain’s GDP by €26.2 billion to €1.05
trillion, reducing country’s debt ratio of 98.9 percent to 96.4 percent,
according to the Bank of Spain. The remaining increase to GDP was generated
from the contributions of research and development and military armament.
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Members of the platform of "Indignant Prostitutes"
and their supporters staged a demonstration in central Barcelona to protest
against the city's plans to modify a law that seeks to prohibit street
prostitution in the Catalan capital, April 26, 2012. (Reuters/Gustau Nacarino)
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To
assess the turnover of prostitution, the agency calculated the number of
prostitutes working in Spain and consulted with sex clubs on the amounts they
earn on average. Prostitution in Spain was decriminalized in 1995. The trade
itself is not directly addressed in the Criminal Code of Spain, but
exploitation such as pimping is illegal. At the same time prostitution is not
considered a job and thus has no legal recognition.
For
the drugs market, INE took the volume of drugs seizures in Spain estimating it
as portion of the entire illegal market. The latest figures from the Government
Delegation of National Plan on Drugs shows that cannabis is the substance used
the most among Spain's population at 27.4 percent, followed by powder cocaine
at 8.8 percent.
The new figures are to be
included in a report to the EU, which according to new rules is compiling the
data on the overall economic health of member states regardless the legality of
activities. The institute based the estimates for illegal activities on
government agency reports.
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