Press release February 4, 2020

Further decline in the shadow economy in Germany in 2020 despite slower economic growth (in German).

The size of the shadow economy will be 322 billion euros in 2020. This is a decrease of 2 billion euros compared with the previous year. The shadow economy in Germany has declined continuously since 2009. The deteriorating economic outlook will dampen this decline in 2020. The still low level of unemployment together together with the expected growth of the official economy, however, will still lead to a slight decline in the shadow economy.