Shadow Economies and Corruption All Over the World - Index of - IZA

3.2.4 South West Pacific Islands
The size and development of the shadow economies of 10 South West Pacific islands is
presented in table 3.2.6.
Table 3.2.6.: The Size of the Shadow Economy in 10 South West Pacific Islands
Shadow Economy (in % of off. GDP) using the
DYMIMIC and Currency Demand Method
Country 1999/00 2001/02 2002/03
1 Fiji 33,6 34,3 35,1
2 Kiribati 34,1 35,0 35,3
3 Maldives 30,3 31,4 32,0
4 Marshall Islands 28,1 29,0 29,6
5 Micronesia, Fed. Sts. 31,3 32,1 33,2
6 Palau 28,4 29,2 30,0
7 Samoa 31,4 32,6 33,5
8 Solomon Islands 33,4 34,5 35,3
9 Tonga 35,1 36,3 37,4
10 Vanuatu 30,9 31,7 32,5
Unweighted Average 31,7 32,6 33,4
If we again consider first the development over time the average size of the shadow economy
of these 10 South West Pacific islands countries, increased from 31.7% in the year 1999/2000
to 33.4% in the year 2002/2003, which means an increase of 1.7 percentage points over these
four years. The largest size of the shadow economy (the latest estimation period 2002/2003)
has Tonga with 37.4%, followed by Solomon Islands with 35.3% and Kiribati with 35.3%. In
the middle field is Micronesia and Samoa with a shadow economy of 33.2% and 33.5% of
official GDP. The lowest shadow economy have the Marshall Islands and Palau with a
shadow economy of 29.6% and 30.0%.
3.2.5 Communist Countries
In this last section the size and development of the shadow economy of 3 communist
countries (China, Laos and Vietnam) is presented. The results are shown in table 3.2.7.
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