Measurement of the size of informal economy in India during covid-19 Hansda Sanjay1, Bhowmick Chaitali2, Goel Sapna2,* 1Adviser, Department of Economic and Policy Research, Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai, Maharashtra 2Manager, Department of Economic and Policy Research, Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai, Maharashtra *Corresponding author email id: sapnagoel@rbi.org.in
Online published on 22 March, 2024. Abstract There has been a growing consensus that COVID amplified the number of poor people in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), accentuated job losses and income inequality. We attempt to estimate the size of informal economy in India during the pandemic affected year 2020-21. The current National Accounts Statistics (NAS) conceptualise household sector as the informal/ unorganised sector in India. The latest official estimates for household sector’s GVA (representing the informal economy) is available for 2019-20. We attempt to estimate the size of informal economy based on our assumptions on sectorwise distribution of loss in output between the organised and the unorganised segment of each sector. As per our methodology, the share of informal economy stood at 41.9% for 2020-21 which is lowest in 2011-12 series. Top Keywords Economy, Loss, Sector, Market, Estimate. Top |