EU: Highest Shadow Economy in Bulgaria

BusinessEconomy ♦ Published: September 14, 2012; 11:29 ♦ (Vindobona)

A World Bank report shows that the Bulgarian economy is still dominated by illegal work. Among EU-countries, Bulgaria clearly ranks first. Austria has the lowest shadow economy.

EU: Highest Shadow Economy in Bulgaria / Picture: © Vindobona.org

In the report “In from the Shadow: Integrating Europe´s Informal Labor”, the World Bank analyzes the black market in the Eastern EU-countries. In 2007, the shadow economy came at 33% of Bulgaria´s GDP. Since then, the share did not decrease, World Bank says. Bulgaria is followed by Romania (29%), Lithuania (28.5%) and Estonia (28.2%). Austria´s shadow economy makes up 7.6% of…