EU report highlights black economy

IRELAND may have one of the larger black economies in Western Europe, based on the findings of a new report.

The European Commission report on undeclared labour across the EU estimates that the extent of the black economy within the states can vary from less than 2% of GDP in Austria to over 20% in Greece.

However, the report was unable to provide any figures for the scale of the problem in Ireland, but business leaders have estimated that the black economy here could be as high as 6% of GDP.