One possible interpretation of the slowing of economic growth is the so-called “mismeasurement” hypothesis. Growth is still thought to be sustained, but in forms that escape traditional data sources: dematerialisation and accelerated renewal of a large number of goods and services, a growing disconnection between their price and their value-in-use, with new free services being a borderline case of this disconnection. The measurement of growth is also likely to be disrupted by the effects of globalisation. It allows rapid and artificial re-allocations of revenues from production, with the risk of “mirror biases”: growth artificially overestimated in some countries and underestimated in others.

This kind of conjecture re-opens questions than have been regularly debated since the creation of the national accounts: the scope of GDP, the practice and theoretical basis for volume/price decompositions, the relevance of the notion of “domestic” product. Answering these questions means clarifying what we want to measure and for what purpose. National accounting serves to adjust cyclical macroeconomic policy and to manage and monitor public finances. It is also intended to provide information on the rate at which the population’s living standards are improving. The problems of measurement do not raise the same issues according to the use concerned, and it is by no means obvious that they have intensified over the recent period.