RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The informal economy in Brazil accounts for 17.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) this year, said a study on Wednesday.
According to the study published by the Brazilian Institute for Ethics in Competition (ETCO) and the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), the so-called underground economy reached 1.12 trillion reals (275 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019.
The share of the so-called underground economy in Brazil's GDP has increased for five consecutive years, reaching the peak this year since 2010. The study attributes the spike to the economic crisis which has been affecting the country since mid-2014.
The country's Institute of Geography and Statistics said in late October that the informal employment rate reached 41.4 percent.
ETCO CEO Edson Vismona said Brazil needs to build a "solid recuperation of the economic environment" to cut informality down.
