Source: Jornal do Comércio - RS - Porto Alegre / RS - 10/12/2010

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The Gross Domestic Product of Brazil (GDP) grew 0,5% in the third quarter of 2010. It will reach, between 7% and 8%, Chinese growth, according to economists. As Christmas is there, consumption is high and, in it, counterfeits and Made in China products proliferate, including prosaic underwear with marks and indications made in Portuguese. That is, the source sends, according to the customer's language, on the other side of the world, a business from China. When Brazil is horrified by the war in Rio, in the fight against drug traffickers, it is noticed that unemployment has decreased. However, there is an alarming fact, that is, the informal economy has increased. People who are not enrolled in Social Security or have official records of another type are not miscreants. However, they fail to protect themselves and to help society and the economy as a whole.

After five consecutive years, between 2003 and 2008, growing less than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the underground economy - business resulting from informal enterprises not registered with governments - grew in 2010 at the same speed as the country's formal economy. With the 2009 revision and update for 2010, the indicator was released by the Brazilian Institute of Competitive Ethics (ETCO), together with the Brazilian Institute of Economics of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (Ibre / FGV). The total handled by the underground economy now exceeds R $ 650 billion in 2010.

According to the research, the curve of the ratio of the index to the Gross Domestic Product stopped falling, showing a tendency of stabilization at around 18,6%. Therefore, in the last three years, the underground economy has increased at the same rate as the Brazilian GDP, which is worrying for the country. The index takes into account a forecast of growth of 7,5% of GDP this year and inflation of 5% in 2010. As in 2009, this year another R $ 656 billion should be left out of the formal economy. It is a high amount and it could help in the collection of city halls, state governments and the Union itself. In July this year, Ibre / FGV and ETCO announced that the estimated values ​​in reais, in 2009, reached R $ 578 billion, equivalent to Argentina's GDP.

In the assessment of ETCO's chief executive, André Franco Montoro Filho, the growth of the economy has a double and antagonistic effect on informality. “On the one hand, growth generates an institutional modernization that encourages the formalization of economic activities, but on the other, income growth increases the consumption of goods and services, including those produced in the underground economy. The results released indicate that the second effect has been prevalent in recent years, ”added Montoro Filho. Many of us, whether we know it or not, stimulate trade that supplies smuggled products, most of them from China. One buys only for the price, without taking into account the terrible quality of what is acquired. When we call hydraulic services, electricity, janitors and others, we do not ask if these workers are registered with Social Security. Probably not, which is a loss for themselves and for the country's economy. Campaigns are carried out so that whoever can enter the formality of the business world, even if it is a micro-business.