PARIS, Jan 8: French President Nicolas Sarkozy, struggling to honour promises on growth and living standards, said on Tuesday that two Nobel economists would work on a happiness index for inclusion in national output data.

“We must change the way we measure growth,” Sarkozy said, arguing that thought had to be given to the way gross national product was calculated to take account of the quality of life in France.

Sarkozy said that US economist Joseph Stiglitz, who won the Nobel economics prize in 2001 and is an outspoken critic of the World Bank and the IMF, had agreed to chair a committee of experts.

Amartya Sen of India, who won the prize in 1998 for work on developing economies and on well-being in India, had agreed to provide advice.

New indices would improve the impression of growth performance among French people “who can no longer accept the growing gap between statistics that show continuing progress (in growth) and the increasing difficulties they are having in their daily lives,” Sarkozy said.

“That undermines growth because no-one believes in the economy any more.”

Sarkozy told his first press conference since being elected in May that he had asked the two Nobel prize winners, “who have done a lot of work on these questions,” to lead the analysis.

His remarks raise several questions about whether he wants French GNP data to reflect national wealth in terms of the heavy state welfare system or if he is preparing to ward off possibly disappointing growth figures this year. He might also believe that the French have reason to be more positive about their situation and outlook.

Sarkozy, who oversees a centre-right government, was elected on a platform to reform French institutions and the economy, to raise growth and living standards, notably by encouraging people to work longer than the controversial 35-hour week in return for overtime pay. He also spoke of raising trend French growth from about 2.0pc to 3.0pc.

But although he has begun reforms, and unemployment has been falling for two years, the outlook has been clouded by a rise in oil and food prices.—AFP