In charts: How the pandemic helped to shrink the informal economy - Times of India

The defining image of the first wave of the pandemic in 2020 was probably that of migrant workers walking home. That moved the spotlight from healthcare panic to the state of workers who were part of the vast informal economy. While the pandemic had a devastating impact on all categories of workers, those in the informal sector were the hardest hit. Now, as the economy begins to settle down, workers in the formal sector have largely recovered, but the informal sector still suffers.
Research by State Bank of India (SBI) says that FY18 estimates show that the informal economy is 52% of the total economy.
What is the informal economy exactly? Even globally, informal economic activity is not specifically defined. The International Monetary Fund says that the informal economy is all unrecorded activities that have market value and would add to a country’s tax revenue and GDP if they were recorded. It’s difficult to measure the size and scale of the informal economy; the SBI research note says: “A globally accepted statistical framework of measuring informal economy is still awaited.”

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In charts: How the pandemic helped to shrink the informal economy - Times of India
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