Billions are lost in the shadows

The state could have cashed in revenues amounting to three times the takings of the Single Property Tax (ENFIA) every year if Greece's illegal economy had been contained to the average level of developed nations in Europe, financial analysts noted on Monday following an International Monetary Fund working text on the matter.

The IMF's "Explaining the Shadow Economy in Europe" document, published on Friday, places Greece among the states with the biggest illicit economies. Greece's black economy came to 30.2 percent of the overall economy in 2016, the latest year that data are available for: This is almost the same as the share of the country's gross domestic product that was lost in the decade-long crisis.

That rate is higher than the 28.1 percent of GDP rate that the illegal economy amounted to in 2000, but down from the rate of 32.2 percent in 2009, when the crisis...

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