Romania’s shadow economy moved from 29.4 percent of the country’s GDP in 2008 to 29.6 percent in 2011. But as the country’s economy shrunk during this interval, the shadow economy went down in nominal terms from EUR 41 billion in 2008 to EUR 38.2 billion in 2011, according to a recent study by Friedrich Schneider, Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, and AT Kearney. The average shadow economy in the EU stayed at some 19.2 percent in 2011, similarly to 2008.

Romania is among the European countries with the largest shadow economies as percentage of their GDPs, with Bulgaria ranking first however, with a 32.3 percent rate. Then comes Lithuania, with 29 percent, and Romania, third place. The smallest rates of shadow economy were posted by Austria – 8 percent, and Luxembourg, 8.2 percent. The Netherlands’ shadow economy is also below the 10 percent threshold, with 9.8 percent.

In nominal terms however, the biggest shadow economy is in Germany, with EUR 351 billion in the shadow economy, accounting for 11 percent of its GDP, which is the biggest in the EU. The second largest shadow economy is Italy’s, of EUR 336 billion, or 21.2 percent of its GDP.

The study focused on five case studies, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain and Turkey, and made a connection between the high level of online transactions and the low level of the shadow economy.

Romania’s internal estimations concerning its shadow economy however differ: Finance Minister Daniel Chitoiu was recently estimating the country’s shadow economy to be at 3.5 to 8 percent of the GDP. He also estimated that some 2-3 percent of the GDP, or some EUR 3-4 billion go to offshores.

editor@romania-insider.com