Shadow economy grows up to 30% in pandemic year – Economy Ministry

The level of shadow economy in Ukraine in 2020 was 30% of official GDP, which is 3% more than in 2019, according to the Ministry of Economy.

This was said in the ministry’s report on general trends of the shadow economy in Ukraine in 2020.

"Complicating economic conditions due to the introduction of anti-epidemic measures in Ukraine and worldwide have caused the natural desire of business entities to reduce the risk of losing limited resources (against the background of a significant increase in economic losses due to temporary but unpredictable restrictions on business activity), which led to the growth of shadow economy," the document reads.

The ministry notes that the shadow economy level growth obtained at the end of 2020 was lower than in previous crisis periods (in particular, in the 2014 crisis).

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