Survey: Grey economy most noticeable in services sector

BELGRADE - Businessmen believe that the grey economy is most noticeable in the sectors of trade and services, shows the survey into the grey economy carried out among citizens and companies.

The survey was carried out by the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) and USAID in the course of November and December 2014, within the project aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of Serbia's economy.

The survey showed that 44 percent of the interviewed businessmen believe that trade is a sector in which the grey economy is most noticeable, while 34 percent believe that to be the case in the services sector and nine percent - in production (agriculture), while 14 percent said they do not know.

Predrag Kurcubic, the director at the Ipsos Strategic Marketing agency responsible for market research, noted that around 70 percent of the companies said they operate legally.

He said that it is also important that almost 30 percent of the companies admitted in the survey that they do not perform all their financial transactions via bank accounts.

Kurcubic noted that a switch to the grey economy most often occurs in procurement (materials and components) and transport (travel expenses and fuel).

Compared to May and July, considerably fewer businessmen noted in the December survey that their annual revenues have significantly dropped due to activities in the grey zone, market researches said during the presentation of the survey.

In December, a considerably higher percentage of businessmen stated that the government is determined in the fight against the grey economy (63 percent), while 48 percent of them, or 42 percent of the respondents, made such a statement in July and May.

Kurcubic...