Written question asked by Lord Roberts of Conwy (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Patel of Bradford (Labour) on Tuesday, 10 March 2009 on behalf of the UK Statistics Authority.

Gross Domestic Product

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the United Kingdom's gross domestic product was attributable to banking and financial services in 2007–08.

Answer: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply. Letter from Karen Dunnell, National Statistician, to Lord Roberts of Conwy, dated March 2009. As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the percentage of Banking and Financial Services to gross domestic product (GDP). (HL1575) When assessing industry percentages to total production it is more appropriate to assess against total gross value added (GVA) than GDP. This is because GDP equals GVA plus unallocated taxes and subsidies such as VAT which are not able to be allocated to industry production. In current (nominal) price terms for the calendar year 2008 total financial intermediation (which includes banking, insurance, pension funding and financial auxiliaries) is estimated to make up 8.5 per cent of total GVA. The banking industry only (SIC division 65) is estimated to make up 5.7 per cent of total GVA.

Secondary information