RIGA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Illicit activity in the Latvian construction sector continued to gradually decrease last year, showed an annual survey released on Wednesday.
According to the survey conducted by Arnis Sauka, a professor at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga) and board member of the Business Against Shadow Economy NGO, the share of shadow economy in the construction sector dropped 1.1 percentage points over the past year, from 35.2 percent in 2017 to 34.1 percent last year.
Sauka said at the presentation of his survey that unreported wages had always been the industry's biggest problem but that their share dropped 3.9 percentage points over the past year, from 32.1 percent to 28.2 percent.
He attributed this trend to a collective agreement that has been concluded by most construction firms and will become binding to the entire construction sector in May.
The survey also shows that undeclared income in the construction industry increased last year, from 26.7 percent in 2017 to 27.1 percent in 2018, and illegal employment rose from 17.6 percent to 18.8 percent.
Corruption in construction also increased last year, rising from 15.5 percent in 2017 to 16.4 percent, Sauka said.
In 2015, shadow economy accounted for 40 percent of the Latvian construction sector, according to the first survey on illicit construction activity, which was released in 2016.
