"It is a sign that something is wrong"

By ETCO

Source: O Tempo - MG - ECONOMY - 02/12/2009

Rio de Janeiro. Among the activities considered in the underground economy index are illegal ones (prostitution, drug trafficking, buying and selling stolen products) and those that are legal but informal, such as stalls of commerce, often to avoid paying taxes and labor rights.

“There is everything here, I can't say that the entire underground economy is bad. Here is the street vendor who, with incredible flexibility, sells an umbrella at the subway door minutes after it starts raining. But the underground economy is a symptom that something is wrong, ”says Professor Fernando de Holanda Barbosa Filho.

The director of the Etco Advisory Council, Marcílio Marques Moreira, recalled that it is not possible to say with certainty how much the informal economy represents of GDP - estimates range from 11% to 45% of the economy. But, according to him, it is necessary to know this reality better.