The Korea Institute of Public Finance said in its latest report that the shadow economy here was estimated at 124.7 trillion won ($108.8 billion) as of 2015, making up 8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product worth 1,558.6 trillion won.

The proportion has declined slightly compared to 2013 when it was 8.7 percent of the GDP, it added.

However, the figure is far lower than the earlier projection of 24.7 percent calculated by Friedrich Schneider from Austria in 2010.