REPEAT: MNI: Japan Offl: Review Won't Change GDP Estimate Much

--Repeats story first filed at 0624GMT Mondat 15 Jan

     TOKYO (MNI) - Government plans to improve GDP statistics are unlikely to

sharply change the official estimate of Japan's modest economic growth, a senior

official said Monday.

     "If previously little covered areas, such as the sharing economy, are added

to the GDP, and improved quality of medical services is reflected, our real GDP

estimate may be raised, but it is unlikely to push up the growth estimate from

2% to 3%, for example," Shuji Hasegawa, executive research fellow at the

Economic and Social Research Institute of the Cabinet Office, told reporters.

     "We don't know whether the review will push GDP up or down," he said. 

     The government is trying to improve the accuracy of the way total domestic

output is estimated in areas including the sharing economy and the quality of

medical and education service in response to changing life styles and the aging

population.

     The results of the review will be reflected in the data in December 2020,

when the government updates the base year of GDP to 2015 from the existing 2011,

in line with the planned change in official industrial input and output

analysis.

     "The interval between our base-year changes is usually five years but this

time it will be four years, based on the timing of the update of the industrial

input-out tables," Hasegawa told MNI. 

     "The review of medical and education services will take time but we want to

reflect the results of the review in the GDP data as soon any of them are ready,

even before the end of 2020."

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: MAJDS$,M$A$$$,M$J$$$,MGJ$$$]