Recent data has found that South Korea’s underground economy makes up more than 24 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product(GDP).
 
Main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Un-ju, who is a member of the National Assembly’s Strategy and Finance Committee, unveiled on Wednesday a report submitted by the National Assembly Research Service.
 
According to the data, an Austrian economics professor, Friedrich Schneider, estimated that South Korea’s shadow economy accounted for 24-point-seven percent of the nation’s GDP in 2010. The amount is more than 13 percentage points higher than the average of 17-point-nine percent posted by members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
 
Given that the nation’s GDP amounted to one-point-173 quadrillion won in 2010, the size of underground activity is estimated to stand at 290 trillion won in that year. 
 
Lee said that though the size of the underground economy can be calculated in different methods, South Korea overall has the largest such economy among developing countries, excluding African and Latin American nations.
 
While the government has pledged to legalize such activities, Lee said it has yet to even estimate the exact size of the underground market.
 
The government is planning to bring 27-point-two trillion won worth of the underground economy into the legitimate arena by 2017.