Shadow economy makes 31% of Ukraine’s economic system and is one point up compared to the last year, said  Economy Ministry in a report issued on Monday.

Government officials argued such dynamics reflects ‘natural wish’ of corner-cutting businesses to avoid losses in light of the Covid-related crisis, which ‘remains unpredictable in terms of its impact and duration’.

Assessment of Ukraine’s shadow economy produced mixed results as the ministry experts applied four different methods.

When measured using the electricity and the monetary methods the share of Ukrainian shadow economy this year proved to be 2 points up compared to 2020 estimates – 28% and 33% respectively. two other approaches – the financial method and  the method of “consumer spending – retail turnover’ – by contrast, showed the share of underground economy has actually contracted by  10 and 2 points respectively (23% and 22%).