Business, Economics, Latvia, Markets and Companies

"If productivity and export indicators of Latvian companies increased, it would be easier to pay taxes in general, and then better results in reducing the shadow economy would be achieved," said Endzins.

The head of the LCCI pointed out that since the first shadow economy conference ten years ago, Latvia has managed to reduce the shadow economy by almost half.

"Unfortunately, at the same time, we have to admit that we are" fooling around ", as shown by the results of the last seven years. Main reasons - in recent years, the main focus of this policy has been on combating the shadow economy as such without addressing the causes. Furthermore, little has been done to motivate entrepreneurs to pay taxes," said Endzins.

As reported, Latvia's shadow economy last year declined by 0.3 percentage points to 23.9% of the gross domestic product (GDP).

At the same time, shadow economy in Lithuania has dropped by 0.percentage points to 18.2%, and in Estonia it declined by 2.4 percentage points to 14.3%.