The underground economy - those economic activities partially or completely left out of the accounting books - accounts for 18% of the Gross Domestic Product, said Valentina Ungureanu, head of the National Statistics Institute (INS). As the GDP was worth some 44bn euros in 2002, the underground economy thus totalled some 8bn euros.
"We did not consider the so-called illegal activities, such as prostitution or drug dealing. Should these activities also have been included, we would have come up with bigger figures," Ungureanu added. The research was based on the final data for 2001.
The unaccounted or hidden economy includes revenues from activities performed in the households, or by the taxi drivers, doctors and teachers in their spare time. These activities are not reported at the financial administrations. The hidden economy also includes the undisclosed operations of trading companies and fiscal frauds.
To calculate the size of the underground economy, INS basically applied the workforce theory, which is recommended by Eurostat, according to the institute's official. The underground economy springs from the difference between the number of employees companies declare and the one resulting from the statements INS 'picked' during an investigation among households.
Moreover, Ungureanu added a research programme was currently being developed throughout Europe, meant to identify the best methodological calculations for the hidden economy.
A survey drafted in 2001, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), revealed hidden activities amounting to 32% of the real GDP and 45% of the GDP calculated by the INS.
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