The UK is currently reviewing the GDP figures in order to determine if the financial sector is adequately measured, I think this is being done by the treasury and could provide some interesting answers, this may be available on its website.

Any chance of fudging his fiscal rules?

Luckily for the Chancellor, some salvation is at hand in the form of a planned revision of GDP by the Office for National Statistics, expected in the autumn.

By changing the way that the UK financial sector is valued, this could increase the estimated size of the economy by about 2% of GDP.

If that happened, the 40% of GDP ceiling for public debt would automatically go up about £12bn, and the Chancellor would have room to make this year's tax cuts permanent and perhaps announce some more.

From the BBC 23rd May - Gordon Brown's economic options