Does the Digital Economy Distort the Volume-Price Split of GDP? The French Experience[L’économie numérique fausse‑t‑elle le partage volume‑prix du PIB ? L’expérience française]

The slowdown in economic growth over the past two decades is in contrast with the digitisation of the economy. As a result, certain economists are wondering about a possible problem in measuring GDP and, in particular, its volume‑price split. The article reviews the meth‑ ods used by statisticians, with a focus on France, to distinguish changes in price from changes in volume, with a particular attention to the particularities and difficulties linked with the digital economy: communication goods and services, the existence of forms of digital sales, the emergence of new digital services and the development of free services. While the methods put in place deserve to be questioned, a simulation shows that an error in the measurement of the prices of information and communication products is not likely to explain the slowdown in economic growth.