The head of the Financial Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Danilo Hetmantsev, announced at the Forbes Money forum that the volume of Ukraine’s shadow economy is currently estimated at 800–900 billion hryvnias, which is approximately $21.7 billion per year. This level of shadowing significantly exceeds similar indicators in European countries.
This is reported by Business • Media
“30-50% of the economy is in the shadows, and in some sectors, it exceeds 60%. This is the main obstacle to economic development. The level of shadowing in European countries is 5-7%,” he said.
The Potential of Deregulation for Budget Revenue
According to Hetmantsev, the new assessment of the shadow sector’s scale is based on the current GDP growth. He emphasized that deregulation could become one of the main sources of additional funding for the army, allowing for the attraction of about 400 billion hryvnias without increasing the tax burden. It is expected that by 2025, due to this process, revenues to the state budget could increase by $4 billion.
Budget Strategy for 2025
Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko also confirmed the urgent need to increase state budget expenditures in 2025. He noted that the funding deficit could be covered by developing the domestic borrowing market and improving tax administration, without resorting to raising tax rates.