<P> Since the establishment of the Single Market (Maastricht 1993) the total EU shadow economy has been growing systematically to approx . 1.9 trillions € in preparation of the EURO driven by the motor of the European shadow economy, Germany, which has been generating approx. 350 bn € per annum since then (see also diagram on the right). Hence, the EU financial economy has developed parallel an efficient tax haven bank system to protect and manage its growing shadow economy . As per the Financial Secrecy Index (FSI 2013) currently Germany and some neighbouring countries, range among the world's top tax haven countries . </P> <P> The diagram below clearly shows that national informal economies per capita vary only moderately in most EU countries . It is because market sectors with high informal part (above 45%) like "building and construction" or "agriculture" are rather homogeneously distributed over the countries, whereas sectors with low informal part (below 30%) like "financial and business" (in Switzerland, Luxembourg), "public and personal services" (in Scandinavian countries) as well as "retail, wholesale and repair" are dominant in countries with extremely high GDP per capita i.e. industrially highly developed countries . The diagram also shows that in absolute numbers the shadow economy per capita is related to the wealth of a society (GDP). Generally spoken, the higher GDP the higher shadow economy, albeit non-proportional . </P> <P> There is a direct relation between high self - employment of a country to its above average shadow economy . In highly industrialized countries where shadow economy (per capita) is high and the huge private sector is shared by an extremely small elite of entrepreneurs a considerable part of tax evasion is practised by a much smaller number of (elite) people . As an example German shadow economy in 2013 was 4.400 € per capita, which was the 9th highest place in EU, whereas according to OECD only 11.2% of employed people were self - employed (place 18). On the other hand, Greece's shadow economy was only 3.900 € p.c (place 13) but self - employment was 36.9% (place 1). </P> <P> An extreme example of shadow economy camouflaged by the financial market is Luxembourg where the relative annual shadow economy is only 8% of the GDP which is the second lowest percentage (2013) of all EU countries whereas its absolute size (6.800 € per capita) is the highest . </P>

What kind of business does the informal sector operate