Shadow economy in Russia accounts for 20-25% of GDP

The shadow sector of the economy in Russia accounts for 20-25 per cent of GDP, Vyacheslav Soltaganov, a top official of the Russian Security Council, said on Tuesday at a press conference in Moscow on the problems of countering criminal incomes laundering and financing of terrorism.

In figures the shadow sector of the Russian economy is estimated at 2-2.5 trillion roubles which is equivalent to the Russian federal budget revenues last year, Soltaganov stated.

According to an estimate by the Russian Security Council, about 9 million people work in the shadow sector of the economy.

Illegal export of capital from Russia in 2002 amounted to about 12 billion dollars which "would allow one-third of the federal budget expenditures to be covered". Soltaganov also noted that "one-day" firms which continue to exist despite the tightening of control over the registration of legal entities, as before, play the key role in the illegal transfer of capitals abroad.

The following figures were also cited at the conference: 860 billion dollars of ill-gotten incomes are "laundered" in the world as a whole every year, with one per cent of these funds being spent on financing the international terrorist organisations.