Exame Portal - São Paulo / SP - ECONOMY - 28/06/2011

The informal economy in the country generated resources above the estimates of the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition (ETCO) and the Brazilian Institute of Economics of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (Ibre-FGV) last year. According to the institutions, the so-called underground economy, which covers the set of activities related to the production of goods and services deliberately not reported to governments, moved around R $ 663 billion in 2010, above the R $ 656 billion projected in November of the year. past.

The value was calculated from the Underground Economy Index, which measures the evolution of the informal economy in the country and confirmed the trend of stability in 2010. Calculations by the institutions indicate that the underground economy represented around 18,3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year, a percentage very close to that recorded in 2009 (18,5%) and in 2008 (18,7%).

In the foundation's analysis, the variations observed in the past three years in the participation of the informal economy within GDP represent adjustments and do not point to a relevant drop.

In November of last year, the institutions had already pointed to a stabilization trend in the informal economy's share of GDP, in the last three years. Between 2003 and 2008, the underground economy grew less than GDP, according to the entities.