ONS weighs up how best to count the UK's sharing economy

Statisticians want to track the new ways that people consume and trade goods and services, via online platforms

Statisticians are exploring how to measure the UK's rapidly growing "sharing economy", where consumers trade time, assets and talents through platforms such as Airbnb and TaskRabbit.

Amid criticism that official statistics fail to capture the full picture of Britain's modern economy, the Office for National Statistics has been planning to update its surveys to better measure the new ways people consume and trade goods and services.

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