pocket change

Asian governments generally grapple with an informal or hidden economy reaching levels of 30%, while China’s shadow economy was set at about 15%.

But Bloomberg is reporting new numbers which reveal about 30% of China’s economy is also illegal or quasi-illegal. Households are hiding as much as $1.4 trillion, 80% accrued by the top 20% politicians, managers and plant contractors.

Next Big Future has broken out a laundry list of China’s hidden money!

China’s measure of official GDP is centrally derived, based on its ‘flow of funds’ and not easily comparable to OECD figures. The USA and OECD countries have estimated 16% shadow economies. Worldwide, criminal financial activity hides another 15% from tally and tax. 2006 study of shadow economies for 145 countries, Brookings Institute [ pdf ]