Spain"s "black" economy worth 25 percent of GDP

The black economy was worth €253 billion ($ 344 billion) in 2012, the report by Spanish tax office workers union Gestha shows.

That’s €60 billion higher than at the start of the crisis in 2008, and means the submerged economy was worth a whopping 24.6 percent of GDP in 2012.

In 2008, by contrast, this underground activity was valued at a still-high 17.8 percent of GDP.

The Gestha report ties the massive growth in Spain’s submerged economy to high levels of corruption, the lingering effects of the country’s building boom — which created a huge pool of black money — and massive unemployment.

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Spain"s "black" economy worth 25 percent of GDP