GDP growth higher after black market inclusion

The Central Statistical Office (GUS) announced on Monday that it has corrected Poland’s GDP growth figure for 2013 from 1.6 percent to 1.7 percent in accordance with ESA2010 methodology. The new methodology, enforced by the European Union, includes black market figures in GDP calculation. The value of the illegal part of Poland’s economy in 2013 was estimated at PLN 13.02 billion or 0.79 percent of the corrected gross domestic product. Within that, the value of prostitution was calculated as PLN 657 million, that of drug trafficking at PLN 9.84 billion and that of cigarette smuggling at PLN 2.52 billion. The total value of Poland’s GDP after the corrections in PLN 1.648 trillion compared to PLN 1.636 trillion when calculated in accordance with the previous methodology, ESA1995.