Source: Diário do Nordeste - Fortaleza / CE - COLUMNS - 25/07/2010

Informality

The informal economy circulated R $ 578 billion in Brazil in 2009, which corresponds to 18,4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or the sum of the wealth produced in the country, according to a survey recently released by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and the Brazilian Institute of Competitive Ethics. This R $ 578 billion is equivalent to the GDP of Argentina and already shows a significant advance in relation to the performance of the underground economy in 2003.

Almost doubled

That year, the informal economy generated R $ 357 billion or the equivalent of 21% of GDP. If converted to 2009 values, this sum would jump to R $ 523 billion. For experts, the increase corresponds to a larger base of GDP. It means that the value moved by the underground economy has hardly changed, since the Brazilian's income has also risen. One of the variables that most contributed to the fall in the participation of the underground economy in the Brazilian economy in general was the search for credit, according to the researcher from Ibre (Brazilian Institute of Economics) of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), Fernando de Holanda Barbosa Filho . Which means that companies and workers prefer to bear the costs of formalization in order to have access to finance.