Economics revision
I read with interest your briefing on “The trouble with GDP” (April 30th), which highlighted the limitations of gross domestic product as a measure of prosperity. I agree that although GDP provides a good measure of market and government economic transactions, it does not take account of many other important economic and social factors.
Since 2011 the Office for National Statistics has been developing wider measures of economic well-being. These include household “satellite accounts” that estimate the value of unpaid labour, such as volunteering and informal child care, that fall outside the scope of GDP. In 2014 the value of this activity amounted to £1 trillion ($1.65 trillion) compared with a British GDP of £1.8 trillion. We have also been publishing quarterly information on economic well-being since December 2014 that brings together a number of indicators to give a more rounded and comprehensive picture. These include net domestic product and net national disposable income per person that adjust GDP for the depreciation of assets, the net flows of profits into and out of the country and population change.
Jonathan Athow
Deputy National Statistician for Economic Statistics
London