MOSCOW, September 25 (RIA Novosti) – Spanish GDP has grown by 2.6 percent, or 26.19 billion euros, a third of which can be accounted for by illegal activities, such as drug trafficking and prostitution, Spanish National Statistics Institute data shows, El Pais reported on Thursday.
"Nine billion [euros], more than a third …is provided by certain illegal activities (prostitution, drug trafficking and smuggling), an added value by the National Statistics Institute that is included in the calculations for the first time," El Pais newspaper informed.
"In total, the activities assumed illegal accounted for 0.87 percent of the GDP. Prostitution represents 0.35 percent and drug trafficking 0.5 percent," the release stated.
In 2014, the European Union decided to include illicit economic activities within GDP estimates. In order to estimate the value that drug trafficking has for the Spanish economy, the Institute has "taken into account the quantity of narcotics seized by the police, using that amount to estimate the total impact the production and sale of illegal substances has on the economy," the newspaper said.
A similar methodology was used to calculate the effect of smuggling. The prostitution-related calculation was based on the number of people employed in brothels, which under Spanish law are neither fully legal nor illegal.
The recovery of the Spanish economy is set back by very high unemployment (26 percent), low productivity and the painstaking deleveraging of sizeable debt in the economy, the International Monetary Fund said in July.
