July 3 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's shadow economy accounted for 29.9% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, as much as in 2017 and slightly down from 30.2% of GDP in 2011, a recent study showed.
Red tape, corruption and unemployment are the three main factors driving the country's shadow economy, a study conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) showed.
In 2016, Bulgaria's GDP amounted to 92.6 billion levs ($53.9 billion/47.4 billion euro).
In the 2020-2025 period the share of the country's shadow economy is seen slightly decreasing to 29.6%.
The global average among the 28 countries included in the survey is 22.5% in 2017 and is projected to decrease to 21.4% by 2025.
Bulgaria ranked eighth among the countries in the survey.
The share of shadow economy was largest share in Azerbaijan - 66.1% of GDP, and lowest in the US - 7.7%.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)