VIDEO RENTALS HIDDEN BOON FOR ECONOMY

WASHINGTON — Jane Fonda and Indiana Jones are winning more respect from the bureaucrats who tally America’s gross national product.

The Commerce Department revised its estimates Friday of the nation’s GNP from 1984 and 1986. It found the economy was doing better than thought, partly because the government was missing billions of dollars’ worth of videocassette rentals.

People rented more than $3 billion worth of videotapes in 1985 and at least that much more in 1986, the Commerce Department concluded. Those additions made up over a seventh of the government’s total revisions to GNP growth for the two years.

Robert Parker, the department official in charge of putting together the GNP report, said the government doesn’t include videocassette rentals in its quarterly reports because the revenues are mixed in with business services such as floor cleaning and window washing.

Only when the Commerce Department conducts its annual survey of retail trade does the videocassette rental business’ economic prowess come through, he said.

Private economists said they weren’t surprised the government had missed the $6-billion-plus rental business. It takes several years for the Commerce Department to notice a new industry and include it in its more periodic business surveys, they said.